I will go for the 3 then thanks, Nicoli can hopefully deal with the other one.
Nicholai looks up and starts in surprise to find a face already looking down at him! He is so shocked that he only gives a dull grunt as the spear hits his shoulder. It isn't until the spear is pulled back that the pain hits, and the dandy gives a high-pitched gasp of agony.
The spearman, distracted by Kajetan's cry and bright spell-works, looks up. NIcholai moves, stumbling backwards as he hisses the slippery syllables to his own spell and raises his arms towards his attacker. The darkness of the stormy night is again brilliantly lit by a brief flash as a sheet of flames rolls forth from NIcholai's outstretched hands to engulf the spot on the wall he just vacated.
LOL! I just realized, the two casters are guarding each other! This is better than Karaoke night! ;)[/ooc]
"Want to surrender yet?" Kajetan asks the wounded opponent.
Laithe-wolf dashes away from his would-be assailants, and finding a largish block of fallen stone wills his transformation back to human form, before once again enticing nature to do his will.
Again, the grass and small bushes covering the hillside begin to writhe and grow (though this time without the sharp thorns), reaching up to grasp those within a large circle of the hillside.
The warhorse is caught in the middle of the circle of grasping plants, however, acting partly on instinct, partly under the direction of its rider, it prances and kicks, avoiding the worst of the entanglement, though still placed firmly in the centre of the effect. The man-at-arms who was nearest to Laithe is firmly stuck, the vines rising up to grasp and twine about his legs and waist. The two other axemen are placed right at the edge of the effect, and once again (perhaps guided by their experience with the last circle of tangling briars) manage to keep moving, avoiding being stuck fast.
Kajetan cups his hands towards the pikemen who are stuck or pulling themselves free of the mud, and a cone of clashing colours erupts towards them, enveloping the three men. One of them manages to look away in time, his helm perhaps shielding his eyes, whilst the other two reel, stunned, dropping their spears and crying out weakly.
Nearby, Nicolai positions his hands into a fan and a spray of fire erupts, scorching the last spearman, who roars in pain, although fortunately for him the rain stops him from becoming a human torch, and he remains scorched but standing.
Kajetan cups his hands towards the pikemen who are stuck or pulling themselves free of the mud, and a cone of clashing colours erupts towards them, enveloping the three men. One of them manages to look away in time, his helm perhaps shielding his eyes, whilst the other two reel, stunned, dropping their spears and crying out weakly.
Nearby, Nicolai positions his hands into a fan and a spray of fire erupts, scorching the last spearman, who roars in pain, although fortunately for him the rain stops him from becoming a human torch, and he remains scorched but standing.
Laithe hears the sounds of combat errupt from the ruined walls of the tower, including a yell by Nicolai. He glances back in worry, though is somewhat comforted by the burst of spells indicating the magic users stand yet. Glancing back at the rider and the axemen who had been pursuing him, he tenses, ready to move.
Alton clears the wall and runs over to where the archer lies on the wet grass, rolling about in horrid and mirthless laughter. He draws his rapier and stabs down … and as he does so there is a screech from up above, and a great black eagle dives down out of the rainy sky towards him, sharp talons extended.
Alton stabs the man, doing minimal damage with his small rapier , an instant before the bird’s talons rake the halfling’s back .
Nicholai, hands still steaming in the heavy rain from his last spell, looks up in reflex at the cry of the hunting bird. He sees a dark shape plummet past the wall, and hears Alton's cry of pain.
"Alton? ALTON!" The drenched dandy cries forlornly into the storm.
'Shining One! We need you! Kill the dark hunter!' He cries desperately onto his empathic link.
:P
Keildrithe continues to chant the verses to his angry ode at he top of his lungs as he advances through the rain with jaws clenched and fire in his eyes:
The pigs order us to follow orders and obey
The flies drink the decaying nectar of their tortured effigy
Cling to wasted beliefs and visions and bathe in apathy again
No solution, the retirbution of spiritual sickness begins
Born we are the same, within the silence, indifference be thy name
Torn we walk all alone, we sleep in silent shades
The grandeur fades, the meaning never known
Veiled by the rain, Keildrithe moves into flanking position behind the axeman that Pharris has wounded, and then lunges with his sword at him while reciting the words of his vengeful ode through clenched teeth.
As his sword pierces the Thuringian warrior's armour, the Karand whispers the following in a hoarse voice:
She is the blade
She is death
And I, her aide...
Taketh thine last breath...
;)
"Outstanding! Keildrithe you are a star," beams Pharris.
She looks to see if the wound is fatal, prepares to pick another target.
Keildrithe's sword plunges straight through the man's chest. There is a surprised look on his rain-streaked face, and then he slumps off the blade, his blood mingling with the mud on the ground.
Kajetan looks a bit alarmed as the soldier dies, a brief thought of the man's family flashes through his mind, the thought makes him sad and alone.
The scar faced archer continues to roll about on the wet ground at Alton’s feet, as the eagle screeches and attacks the halfling … but the laughter appears to be dying down.
The archer from the east has about reached the top of the hill now, slowing as he approaches the tumbled fortification. The southern archer skirts part way about the area of entangling plants and fires another arrow at Laithe, this one glances harmlessly off the shoulder guard of his hide armour.
The armoured rider urges his mount through the entangling weeds; the horse’s movement is impaired, but it manages to break through, and the rider makes a beeline for Laithe, moving to almost within striking distance of the druid.
While one of the men-at-arms remains stuck fast amongst the grasping plants, his two fellows near the edge of the effect pull free and run around the edge of the circle towards Laithe. The other axeman, still stuck amongst the briar web, screams his last as the thorny vines wrap about his throat.
The two pikemen who remain un-stunned and are now free of the mud do not press the attack beyond the wall, looking in what might be fear at their companions, disabled be spells. One of the pair still smoulders from Nicolai’s fire spell. They hold their spears ready.
Pharris moves thirty feet out to help Alton. She attacks either the eagle or the fallen archer. Preferably the eagle since that is the biggest threat long term.
"Come on Master!" she giggles at the small warrior, sword perfectly balanced behind her head.
Putting a hand to the bleeding gash on his head, Laithe calls on Ehlonna to staunch the flow of blood. A brief and warm glow appears, and the nasty gash closes, with the rain quickly washing away any evidence that it had ever occured.
Barely done, Laithe blanches as an arrow skips off his should pad. Seeing the approach of the rider and the remaining axemen, he decides it is high-time to rejoin his comrades inside the walls. He quickly wills a change into wolf form and moves off once more, skirting the mud-patch and the soldiers and leaping up and over the wall, turning to face any who might pursue.
Kajetan stands there, rain running down his hood and dripping off his nose and chin, he looks behind him where he can faintly see Pharris fighting some flying dark shape, Alton is hidden behind the tumbled wall, but the sound of laughter is fading.
In front of him Laith and Keildrithe stand between him and the remaining foot men.
"Gotcha Sucker!" The dandy murmurs with a smile as he raises his hands once more, instinctively reaching for the magic that he hears calling him. Lovely, lyrical syllables flow from his lips as his palms begin to shine brightly. The sudden light illuminates the interior of the tower with a warm glow.
The music of the magic, something he can usually only barely hear in the background, is a roar in Nicholai's ears. With a sneer he slams his hands together, and the streams of light escaping from between his hands casts his face in shadows that make him look,... diabolical. His forehead wrinkles in concentration as he mentally wrestles with the magic, forcing all the light to stay IN his hands. Finally, when the music reaches a crescendo that threatens to deafen him, he allows it to escape.
It is a thin, shining beam of golden light that escapes from Nicholai's clasped hands. A shaft of concentrated sunlight that promises to burn all in its path with righteous fire. Nicholai smiles, caught up in the success of the moment as he directs the shaft of light towards the dark rider,...
Keildrithe hurls a dagger at the singed pikeman, but it hits the wall with a clatter and bounces back near the bard's feat. "Damn it!" growls the bard through clenched teeth...
Kajetan is delaying his action, Is it obvious that the Pikemen are readying their attacks, from the description I read it as they were scared and not acting because of that.
If it is obvious then I would like to take Kajetan's delayed action, asking Nicolia to wait for me to go first.
Kajetan is delaying his action, Is it obvious that the Pikemen are readying their attacks, from the description I read it as they were scared and not acting because of that.
If it is obvious then I would like to take Kajetan's delayed action, asking Nicolia to wait for me to go first.
Pharris cuts the eagle right out of the sky, her sword slicing through the rain above Alton’s head and almost cutting the bird in two. It dies before it hits the ground.
Laithe casts his curative spell, reverts to lupine form, then bounds around the pikemen and the mud patch, over the wall and back into the ruined tower.
Keildrithe’s thrown dagger clatters uselessly against the wall.
Nicolai is about to cast a spell when Kajetan tugs at his sleeve, indicating the waiting spearmen and their long pikes.
Kajetan shouts at the guards "want some of this?" before unleashing another Colour Spray at them, hurling a hand full of coloured sand in their direction.
He mutters a silent prayer to all the gods under his breath that this one takes them both out.
Alton raises his sickle high above his head and brings it slashing down at the laughing soldier and stabbing with his rapier.
Sighing, he glances back at Pharris, a smile flickering across his grime-stained face. "Thanks you. Now, time to bring our blades to bear against the horseman."
Kajetan steps back a pace, out of range of the two spears, and unleashes his spell. The flashing lights swirl around the two pikemen, both of whom yell out for a moment, before reeling drunkenly, stunned and blinded, their pikes falling from unresponsive fingers.
The opening allows Nicolai to complete his own spell without danger of immediate retribution. He claps his hand together, and a shaft of burning light shoots from between his palms towards the helmed rider, sizzling the rain in its path into steam as it goes. The rider bellows in pain as the scorching ray burns a hole through his armour and into his flesh.
Alton seeks to finish off the archer with his twin weapons, but the scar-faced man rolls away, presenting his shoulder, and although the halflfing strikes him with both weapons, the wounds are not lethal.
The hideous laughter finally dies away, and the archer climbs to his feet , his clothes soaked by the rain, his chain shirt caked with mud.
Shrugging off Alton’s attack, he swings his heavy flail two handed at the halfling with a snarl, hitting hard .
The horseman, after shaking off the pain of Nicolai’s spell, survey’s the situation for a moment. He had seemed about to follow Laithe into the tower, but seeing that the four pikemen seem to have succumbed to some hostile effect, and that the halfling and the woman are out on their own to the west, he instead spurs his horse around, calls for the two men-at-arms to follow him, then charges in a half-circle around the tower towards Pharris, swinging his morning star at her as he rides past. Pharris is concentrating on Alton’s battle in front of her, and her dismissal of the eagle, and the sudden charge takes her off guard. The horseman’s aim seems true, the heavy weapon swings towards the warrior-woman … but at the last moment the horse’s hooves skid on the wet grass, throwing the rider momentarily off balance, and the morning star misses Pharris’ head by inches as the horse thunders past.
The two axemen follow the horse around towards Pharris and Alton, not quite reaching the pair. The third axeman still struggles in the confines of Laithe’s entanglement spell.
The archer approaching from the east and the one from the south are now each about twenty feet from the wall. One fires at Keildrithe, but the arrow smashes into the wall before it reaches the bard. The other fires up and over the wall, aiming for Laithe – the arrow arcs up, then comes down on the wolf’s flank .
"We can take these but may take a few licks, Alton. Ready?"
The girl moves around the far side of the archer and lifts her greatsword towards the rider, she beckons with one hand to him and his axemen.
Shrugging off Alton’s attack, he swings his heavy flail two handed at the halfling with a snarl, hitting hard .
"I'll try and deal with the Axe-men, can some one put these dogs down before they recover?" he indicates the four stunned and blinded men with his thumb.
Keildrithe is about to invoke some more words of power when, hearing Kajetan's request, he changes his mind. "I trust you to save Pharris, wizard!" The bard leaps over the low stone wall and attacks one of of the the stunned pikeman, but the blinding rain and slippery ground result in a clumsy thrust that narrowly misses the bard's target.
Laithe-wolf snarls as an arrow arcs over the wall and strikes him in the rump. He throws a quick scan around the chaos of the battle to try and determine where Atrek might be lurking, worried that the tracker had not yet revealed himself, despite his bird being present.
Laithe:
"I'll try and deal with the Axe-men, can some one put these dogs down before they recover?" he indicates the four stunned and blinded men with his thumb.
Nicholai glances from the horseman, to the axemen, to Kajetan, to the men he can see stumbling and reeling from the effects of Kajetan's spell. He looks undecided as to what to do first. He frowns, then stomps his foot in the mud, as if trying to convince himself of something.
"Take them out if you can, they won't stay stunned long, but concentrate on the leader!" He cries, pointing to the horseman threatening Pharris and Alton.
Brett1815
French Wolf
