Kajetan shivering from adrenaline and rain fumbles through his robes pockets and comes out with a small pinch of ground mica. Uttering the words of magic he sprinkles the dust into his hand and blows it at the two axe men, the area surrounding them becomes filled with a swirling glittering dust that sparkles and glitters through the darkness.
One of the axemen blinks, and shields his eyes from the sudden glare, whilst the other yells out and covers his eyes, wailing.
Nicholai glances between their opponents once more, and his eyes narrow as he looks at the horseman once more.
Laithe-wolf focuses on the bearded, flail wielding man facing Alton for a moment before letting out a howl and turning to make his way across the tower and into combat with the hunter. If we take down the leaders, then maybe less men have to die today... he thinks grimly as he launches his attack, snapping savagely at the man's thigh.
Nicholai's eyes flash once more to the horseman, and to the pike wielding foes still blinking from Kajetan's colorful spell. His lips thin to an almost straight line as he takes advantage of the soldiers' temporary distraction to back up, out of range of the deadly points they wield. Nicholai raises himself to his full height, and calls to the armored rider over the noise of the rain.
"Atrek! Come devil-spawn! I have come to send you to your judgment! Come! Let us dance our eternal dance, good and evil in our never-ending struggle! Allow me to lead!" He cries, almost laughing as he flicks his fingers at the armored rider. The stars on his gloved knuckles flash once more as a flurry of glowing motes fly from his fingers to fly unerringly through the rain to strike the armored form.
Nicholai's eyes flash once more to the horseman, and to the pike wielding foes still blinking from Kajetan's colorful spell. His lips thin to an almost straight line as he takes advantage of the soldiers' temporary distraction to back up, out of range of the deadly points they wield. Nicholai raises himself to his full height, and calls to the armored rider over the noise of the rain.
"Atrek! Come devil-spawn! I have come to send you to your judgment! Come! Let us dance our eternal dance, good and evil in our never-ending struggle! Allow me to lead!" He cries, almost laughing as he flicks his fingers at the armored rider. The stars on his gloved knuckles flash once more as a flurry of glowing motes fly from his fingers to fly unerringly through the rain to strike the armored form.
Alton stabs at the dark clad hunter as he rises to his feet, scoring a minor wound that the man shrugs off, hitting the halfling with his flail.
Pharris moves into a flanking position behind him, but she has her eye on the horseman, waiting for his return charge. Laithe-wolf bounds back over the wall and pounces at Alton’s opponent, tearing a large chunk of flesh from the man’s thigh. The eyes in his scarred, rain streaked face widen as he grits his teeth and snarls back at the wolf.
Kajetan and Nicolai both cast their spells, Kajetan at the axemen, Nicolai at the rider. Nicolai’s three magical missiles steer unerringly towards the man through the rain, thudding into him. He rocks in his saddle, but manages to keep his seat, still in the fight.
Keildrithe is unsuccessful in his attempt to finish of the pikemen, some of whom seem to be close to breaking out of their stupor…
Nicholai grins brightly as his missiles strike their target, but looks around and curses under his breath as he wipes another handful of water from his face.
"There's just so blasted many!" He grumbles to Kajetan. "We can't take them out before they recover from our spells!"
Nicholai turns his head to and fro, looking for something, anything, to inspire him and get them all out of this,... alive.
Alton stabs at the dark clad hunter as he rises to his feet, scoring a minor wound that the man shrugs off, hitting the halfling with his flail.
"There's just so blasted many!" He grumbles to Kajetan. "We can't take them out before they recover from our spells!"
"And I am out of options on the spell front," he whispers back, "I am not looking forward to going hand to hand with them, maybe if we steal their weapons?"
Question 1:
Stunned:
A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a -2 penalty to AC, and loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).
Question 2:
"And I am out of options on the spell front," he whispers back, "I am not looking forward to going hand to hand with them, maybe if we steal their weapons?"
"I've got a few blasts left, but mine are focused on a single target." HE whispers, shifting his stance to be ready to move if the longspear bearers advance again.
"Use whatever you have. ANy spell, any flash, any noise, anyTHING that distracts them, makes them look around for even a second, gives us a chance in this rain! DOn't try anything heroic. Run for your life if you have to! MAke them chase you and they forget that there's someone else they should have worried about!" He hisses as he mentally picks picks a path that should place the rider within range of his burning light spell.
"There's just so blasted many!" He grumbles to Kajetan. "We can't take them out before they recover from our spells!""And I am out of options on the spell front," he whispers back, "I am not looking forward to going hand to hand with them, maybe if we steal their weapons?"
Question 1:
Stunned:
A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a -2 penalty to AC, and loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).Question 2:
1d20+7=12, 1d4+2=5, 1d20+6=18, 1d4+2=4
Rapier miss chance: 1d100=12, Sickle miss chance: 1d100=96
ALton unleashes a flurry of blows upon the flanked foe, his wildly waving rapier opening up an opportunity to try and hamstring the archer with his sickle, which he takes,...
The nearest man-at-arms hesitates, seeing his companion appears to be blinded, but at a shout from the horseman, charges up behind Laithe-wolf, swinging his axe down hard at the beast’s hind-quarters . His companion sways in the rain, blinded and stunned, his axe and shield lying beside him in the mud. The last axeman, some distance away, still struggles to escape Laithe’s entangling vines.
The black-clad archer snarls, again all but ignores the minor wound from Alton’s sickle , and turns his attention to Laithe. “Now you die, shape-shifter,” he growls in Atuscan, before swinging his flail down two-handed, hitting Laithe hard in the side of the head .
Four pikemen still stand stunned just outside the wall – Keildrithe stands near one of them, having failed to finish the man off. Two sway blindly, but the other two begin to blink and twitch their fingers – the spell is starting to wear off.
The archer approaching from the east fires an arrow at Keildrithe, the shaft bouncing off the stone wall inches from him, whilst the one approaching from the south sends his shaft up in an arc over the wall, to scratch Kajetan’s arm on the way back down to ground.
The horseman, after surveying the rain drenched battlefield and shouting orders, swings his morning star, then spurs his horse into a charge at Pharris
Pharris sees everything in slow motion, the rider approaching the morningstar coming across the horse and her greatsword slicing in at his foot.
Then the adrenalin kicks in and the action becomes a blur.
"I am death! I am the blade!" she grits out.
Horrified at the wet lick of hair that splashed across her eyes, Pharris starts to duck.
As the wet conditions play havoc with Pharris’ attack, the rider sweeps in. The girl dodges away from the heavy horse, but is caught by one hoof and is struck a glancing blow by the morning star for her troubles as well as the horse thunders past, its heavy hoofs kicking of clods of mud, the eyes of the rider glaring coldly through his helm.
Keildrithe rushes towards one of the pikemen that is beginning to twitch, and drives his sword into the man's gut.
Pharris completes her wild spin and aims for the back of the archer fighting Alton. She uses all that built up momentum to slice his neck open.
The black-clad archer snarls, again all but ignores the minor wound from Alton’s sickle , and turns his attention to Laithe. “Now you die, shape-shifter,” he growls in Atuscan, before swinging his flail down two-handed, hitting Laithe hard in the side of the head .
Laithe reels from the double attack, blood welling from the deep wounds to mat his wolf coat even more than the driving rain had already done so. Knowing he would be unable to stand up to another such attack, he attempts to maneouvre so the axeman is not standing at his back. He then snaps again at the black clad archer, desperate to bring the man down.
Kajetan is running out of options, he looks round at the amount of opponents they are facing, his mind races, "too many, just too many of them."
Thinking fast he evaluates the options, he could collect up the weapons of the still stunned opponents, but they could just draw their back up weapons, he can't hurt the archers as his cross bow is still by his bedding and he only has Daze and Charm Person left as spells that might have a use. He decides to go for Charm Person, moving over to the other Pikeman who is recovering but has not just been attacked by Keildrithe he casts Charm Person and preys that the man is particularly weak willed.
He decides to go for Charm Person, moving over to the other Pikeman who is recovering but has not just been attacked by Keildrithe he casts Charm Person and preys that the man is particularly weak willed.
1) is the horseman, who just moved, still in range of my burning ray?
2) the pikeman are starting to recover, are they still out of it, or can they take an AoO? I'm wondering if I can take a 5' step (or if I need to?) to get the group of stunned pikemen (or at least 3 of them) in the blast of a burning hands spell? And can I do that without torching Keildrithe? (If I don't aim for the one he's trying to hit.)
Pharris calls out to the spellcasters, "start taking the weaklings down, flanking and pulling out some weapons. Your magic is over, it is time for blood, sweat and tears!"
Nicholai wipes another faceful of rain from his eyes, and glares through the misty veil of rain at the blurry figure of the horseman and others that are clustering around the obviously dangerous forms of Pharris and Alton. He hisses in frustration.
Pharris calls out to the spellcasters, "start taking the weaklings down, flanking and pulling out some weapons. Your magic is over, it is time for blood, sweat and tears!"
Seeing Kajetan move forward to cast his spell, Nicholai also takes a step forward, as if to shield the young bookworm as he casts. In response to Pharris' cry the dripping dandy holds out his hands towards the recovering warriors and mutters, "Oh, we're not done yet!" as he sends another sheet of flame out over the short wall to engulf two of them, the flames hissing and popping ominously in the rain.
He smirks as he lowers his hands. He turns the full weight of his gaze upon his two newly-scorched opponents and says ominously, "We're done playing. Flee, or Die."
Keildrithe cuts down one of the recovering pikemen, whilst Kajetan casts a spell on another (to no immediate or obvious effect, given that the man is still stunned). Nicolai steps forward and holds out his hands to send a fan of flame licking at the last two pikemen. Unfortunately for him, the wet conditions somewhat dampen the effectiveness of his spell, and the men remain burnt but standing.
On the other side of the battlefield, Pharris, Alton and Laithe concentrate their efforts on the black clad archer. All three wound him, a devastating combination, and at last the man falls, mortally wounded if not already dead, falling in a bloody heap into the mud, his flail dropping from lifeless fingers.
The horseman calls out loudly in Thuringian, his voice carrying over the battlefield about the drum of the rain and the sounds of combat.
With that, he turns, spurs his horse who leaps away from Pharris and Laithe and rides quickly down the hill to the west .
The axeman behind Laithe is quick to respond, turning and running down the hill to the south, grabbing his dazed companion by the arm as he runs past a little way down the hill.
Only one of the pikemen has fully recovered from Kajetan’s colour spray spell (though the two scorched by Nicolai’s burning hands look close to recovering). Whether he heard the call to retreat, or succumbed to Kajetan’s charm spell is difficult to tell; he looks around in horror at the conditions – his spear in the mud, his companions to the left stunned and smoking, his companion to the right slumped on Keildrithe’s blade … he turns and tries to run, wading through the thick morass of mud, heading down the hill south.
The archers to the west and south both fire at Keildrithe – the southern archer’s arrow finds it mark , before retreating a short way back down the hill, west and south respectively.
The axeman caught at the edge of Laithe’s entangle spell finally manages to break free. He looks about, then moves quickly south down the hill, stooping to try to wake the pikeman caught be Nicolai’s earlier sleep spell as he passes him lying on the wet grass.
As the Axeman attempts to turn and flee, Laithe-wolf turns and snaps at his heels, hoping to trip him up but not aiming to do any real damage.
Keildrithe lets the corpse of the slain Thuringian pikeman slide off his sword and into the mud, then cries out in surprise as the archer's arrow grazes him. He quickly strides up to the dazed and singed pikemen, pulls the back-up weapons away from their sides, steps behind them, and places his sword to one's neck and a dagger to the back of the other's neck. "Nicolai, Kajetan... bind these gentlemen, if you please... They should consider themselves lucky that I am feeling... compassionate... at the moment..."
At the top of his lungs, he cries out: "The Artonite dogs flee like the cowards they are! Ehlonna and the elder gods have granted us victory! Run, Arotnite cowards, run as far as you can, for if you return, I swear that I'll kill every last one of you!!!"
Then, whispering to his prisoners... "I hope you understand Atuscan, my friends... one false move from either of you, and I'll slit your throats... is that clear?"
NIcholai wipes a sheen of water from his face, somehow making it look as casual as slicking back his mussed hair.
"They're not running, they're regrouping. The commands sounded military." HE replies to Keildrithe in Astucan as he approaches the bard and his erstwhile prisoners. He stands before them, just out of reach, and smiles pleasantly. But the smile doesn't reach his eyes as he says plainly in accented Thuringian.
"In case you DON'T speak the tongue of the Astucans, allow me to translate. My companion is feeling merciful at the moment. IF you consent to being bound, and cause no trouble, he will feel honor-bound to see that you are protected from harm, and safely released once this is over.
I, on the other hand, am not feeling quite so generous. Your leader has participated in the hunting and attempted murder of my companions without cause or mercy. If you do NOT agree to being bound, or give me the slightest excuse, I will feel fully justified in burning you where you stand. Otherwise, I will bow to my companions wish. Do we have an understanding?"
NIcholai adds in Astucan, "Kajetan, will you be so kind as to hand me a length of rope?" He says calmly as he continues to stare at the two men. Kajetan scrambles and soon hands the dandy a length of rope from one of the packs lying in in the rain. Nicholai takes the rope with a muttered 'Thank you', and calmly holds it up before the two men.
"Well?" He says, waiting for a response.
While Pharris futiley fires an arrow at the retreating rider, Kajetan, Nicolai and Kajetan begin dealing with their two prisoners – the two pikemen. The pair are berifit of their main weapons, dazed, wet and scared, and do no resist.