Disa peers at the creature. "Do you not have any food to eat?"
Redec eyes the robust magus hungrily;
"We do. We do. Pantry to the South of this cave yessss... Pull leaver to get food... not to touch gold or shiney's... No! Bearncennicge forbids!"
The cave dweller hungrily nods, drool hanging from his toothy maw...
"Redec can go... guests wait for feast?"
Ragnar just speaks a single word "Show" making to follow him.
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Ragnar growls with a lower and deeper intent "Anytime..."
The wretch shambles forward at the huscarl's behest, leading the group down the twisting tunnel until a large level sits against the wall;
Clearly the level and its function is a relatively recent addition. This is not Puca craft at work...
As you draw close the stench of animal musk and dung is strong and ripe... gaggingly so...
Redec shuffles excitedly from one foot to the other;
"Pull geafle once... once mind yesssss. Pantry open, andleofen only but leave gold... No handhrine ! No forstalian !!!"
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Fort:
Nose flaring slightly but unbothered by the rotting debris, Ragnar keeps a steady eye on Redec before barking "Go on then... pull it"
"You carved this, Redac? This tunnel is no Puca-work. <chitter>"
and
and quick looksee at the lever before pulling
Nose wrinkled in disgust at the overpowering stench, Disa narrows her eyes as she glares at the beast.
Oh my...what a horrible stench <gag...gag> What died in here? Frerin pinches his nose.
Redec grins wickedly as Muli pulls the lever and thus the catalyst for several things happen:
Deeper within the lair, the links of a heavy chain suddenly pulling clatter through the dank air. Their rattle herald the guttural roar that follows them as something both stinking and heavy this way lumbers...
The hinderling cackles and dances an unhinged jig;
"Oh yessss dwoerg-scum! What died? YOU DIED EHEHEHEHEH! STENCMAGA COMES!!!!"
Frerin :
Muli:
Luke:
Ragnar:
Disa:
Redec:
Stencmaga:
INITIATIVE ORDER
Stencmaga (23)
Muli (19)
Luke & Ragnar (16 each)
Frerin (14)
Disa (9)
Redec (4)
Round 1
With the rattle of rusty chain providing percussion to the brutes guttural roar, a huge beast lumbers toward you from the gloom;
Foul-smelling fluids ooze from weeping sores across the scaly skin of this squat, powerful, and vaguely canine beast.
This beast is a particularly large specimen of a trowhund (or trollhound) - voracious beasts that carry both foul contagion and can regenerate wounds like their namesake masters...
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"Muli sees a Trowhund! Give it...<chitter-chitter>....Fire!...Give it fire!"
Muli lobs a chipmonk and it explodes in gouts of flame down the hall.
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Round 1:
At Redec's inevitable betrayal, Ragnar sighs and lets conscious thoughts fade... and the black rage suffuse his mind and take over. With guttural snarl his legs pump piston like to project him towards Redec, and skaggig rips through the air with scything motion...
Raging Power Attack Greataxe: for
...contacting the bastard upon the shoulder bone, with the heavy blade deflecting downwards off the clavicle to cut bloody ruin through Redec's chest.
Seeing Ragnar make for the turncoat, Luke fires quickly into the beast.
Finding its mark down the rough hewn corridor, Muli's Molotov rodent explodes in a gout of flame, explicating a painful bellow from the trowhund as it barrels forward.
Luke adds to its misery with a well aimed shot that buries itself deep into the brute's shoulder, causing it to stumble enraged as huge jaws "clack" in fury!
Redec's maniacal glee is short lived as Ragnar buries his bearded ax, deep into the wretch. Gouts of blood spray over both antagonists as the hinderlings cackle becomes a pained keening.
INITIATIVE ORDER - ROUND 1
Stencmaga (23)
Muli (19)
Luke & Ragnar (16 each)
Frerin (14)
Disa (9)
Redec (4)
Freeing stands back waiting to see if anyone will require healing.
Disa moves forward, mutter arcane and ancient words of lore and fire. Standing by Ragnar's shoulder she allows magic flame to gout forth from her outstretched fingers;
:
:
The fyr licks at the oncoming trow-hund causing it to roar in anger, as it avoids taking the brunt of the magus' attack.
Round 1
Still howling in pain, the hinderling eyes Ragnar murderously and blindly quickly produces a huge bone knife;
:
:
And buries it clean through the huscarls forearm with a hysterical shriek
Round 2
Stencmaga (23) Muli (19) Luke & Ragnar (16 each) Frerin (14) Disa (9) Redec (4)
Bulling forward its flesh searing from alchemical fire and magick flame comes Stencmaga.
The wounded brute snaps at the first target before it ...
:
:
:
... its foul jagged tooth maw snapping shut on her thigh, though the skirnir deftly keeps her footing as the squat monster attempts to shake her off her feet!
Luke again fires into the beast.
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Round 2:
Taking the knife in the arm with a guttural growl, Ragnar twists his body away to draw Redec close enough to drive his forehead at the bastard. As Redec stumbles backward away from the vikingr, he follows up with a heavy rising cross strike with skaggig...
Raging Power Attack Greataxe: for
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Disa cries out in pain as the monstrous jaws clamp shut on her leg. Marshaling her thoughts, the shield maiden channels her own innate resistance onto the spikes of her shield causing them to glisten with corrosive acid. Grunting with the effort, she slams into the beast with the weight of her whole body through her shield.
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Muli pulls a small ball of feathers from his bag and gives it a squeeze. "Cluck-cluck boom-boom" Muli steps back to avoid the teeth and sends a small Ptarmigan fluttering toward the beast.
FIRE damage
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[ooc]Sorry. Didn't know your HP total.[ooc]
If I can retroact, I would like to move up last rd and draw my CLW wand and then heal this rd.
Never fear Ragnar! Frerin is here!
Round 2/3
Everything happens as if in slow-motion;
Ragnar's pained bellow fuels a savage hack that leaves Redec looking shocked at the pumping stump where a arm once was. The Hinderlander's hissing death rattle matching the spurting blood in tempo in a macabre scene...
... and yet he does not fall! Instead the freakish creature twists the knife buried in Ragnar's arm, with a gurgling chuckle...
: ... but fails to grasp the bone blade with any great conviction.
Ahead of this bloody duel, the arrow of Berghof's warden finds its mark afore the trow-hund burns first from the kiss of corrosive bulwark, then is engulfed in the phosphoric Ptarmigan's death flame!
Disa feels the brutes jaw slacken and Stencmaga lies still...
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Round 3:
Ragnar focuses not on whether his foe should or should not have fallen - instead knowing only that it has not... yet. Skaggig is held with hands apart, haft butting away the knife and freeing room for the beard to flash forward and bite...
Raging Power Attack Greataxe: for
Disa charges to back up Ragnar. Stepping up beside him, she ploughs the spikes of her shield into the disgusting creature.
Luke turns and fires on Redec.
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Frerin continues to use his happy stick on the raging barbarian.
That should heal up that wound rather nicely!
After the terrible attempt: Frerin taps the wand against his leg. Silly branch. You must do better than that!
Cloven, slammed and skewered the tenacious hinderling is torn asunder and his corpse flops like a wet rag upon the cavern floor.
Both the foul cave dweller and fouler trow hund's bodies lie still and the caverns deathly silence offer a requiem to the brutally short combat...
This is a large, circular chamber with five dark alcoves around the outside wall, one closed off by a curtain made of patchwork humanoid skin. In the centre of the room are a firepit, a large grime cauldron, gore encrusted ladel, a rudimentary table made from a door and some sacks and chests...
(This is where you encountered Redec first) - we can redescribe should you wish to check over again...
A heaped nest of mud, fur and cracked bones dominates this rough hewn chamber. Elsewhere stinking piles of dried excrement litter the cave. offering traps underfoot to any wishing to delve further...
Arranged around this room are items which one would associate with training for combat and torture. Near one wall is a broken and blood-stained manikin. A rotten skull with long spikes hammered into it hangs by a chain from the ceiling. There are several thigh bones of varying thickness in a rack and a large barrel upon which sits several lengths of coiled rope... both the barrel and rope and slick with congealed blood.
Nearby on a bench against another wall are some bottles and crossbow bolts. Under this bench is a battered straw target...
A passage leading from the one which you have been following is completely blocked by a jumble of rocks, casks, sacks and other items. As you approach, the barricade of refuse the strong stench of rotting flesh assails you...
Let's start out search in the Main Hall.
Hey, these chests and sacks should amount to somethin'.
Frerin follows Luke. Hmmm...What do we have here? He looks around as well.
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Ragnar makes sure of Redec's inability to rise by removing his head from it's companion torso before slumping tired and bloody against the wall as the others make investigation of the lair.
Disa moves to Ragnar, pulling out a scroll as she approaches the barbarian. Unfurling the parchment, she reads out the words of magic, in a foul sibilant hissing language, and a wan red light suffuses the Ulfen. The glow malevolently pulses every few seconds as his wounds began rapidly sealing themselves.
Once done, she pulls out another scroll and reads it, bathing herself in the same red light.
Ragnar nods a wary and suspicious thanks as the dark magicks do their work.
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.
In the aftermath of the battle against the fell Hinderling and its brutal pet, the toll was felt. Whilst Disa does her best to heal wounds, neither she nor Muli can revive your fallen companions - the dweorg Frerin, and the spearman Skol... whose bodies lie dead and sundered from their fell wounds.
Yet in the clamour of battle and chaos of the midden that Stencmaga lair in, a surprise awaits...
... voices from deep within the cavern... words uttered in the Common Tunga, Auld Iobarian and even Skald. Strained they are at first, then rising with the bellowed conviction of those who desperately seek freedom.
As you approach perhaps a trio of voices address any who investigate; voices belonging to folk imprisoned in small hewn cells -with junk doors made of rusted iron, bone, sinew and chained in place. The doors give the impression that they could be disposed of relatively easily, suggesting perhaps that the trow hund was the main block to any escape.
You are all desperate but ready to fight for your chance at freedom if needbe. All of you are at 1/3 HP (round up) and have no equipment or arms save perhaps a bone shard, rudimentary club or chunk of stone (feel free to choose something :). You all know perhaps more of the Hinderlings and their fell mother than these newcomers do, but who knows..
Don't worry normal service and all equipment will (hopefully be restored soon enough)
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Spitting blod flecked phlegm to the side Ragnar is in no mood to wait on ceremony. Gesturing with his head for Muli and Disa to stand back he bellows in the sacred tunga of his Ulfen brethren "Back from the door..." introducing the fetid and breaking wood to the subtle kiss of skaggig...
Power Sunder Damage:
...a brutal and explosive cracking sounding as the door implodes and comes off it's hinges. Through the detritus the Ulfen leers "Ragnar, Ulfen blooded and long descended get of Olof Skötkonung is come. The eater is dead, his hund split by my blade... if you mean us harm come out and I will give you the death you crave... if not then speak... our ears are open."
Sagol is calling for help, in a way. He is chanting an old rite of deliverance and vengeance. Without his Slecgcleadur ("Drum-Club") the song lacks the strong beast that sets the chants apart, however, it may just sound like a call for help if one is ignorant of the ancient ways.
To make up for the lack of a proper instrument, he has taken to pounding on his door. His arms are weak from hunger and his soul pines in captivity. Until a stout thigh bone falls loose from the makeshift door.
Sagol is a large man among large men; a personification of the strength that can be found in the past. When he takes up that club he knows beyond doubt that it is a message.
It is time.
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Spitting blod flecked phlegm to the side Ragnar is in no mood to wait on ceremony. Gesturing with his head for Muli and Disa to stand back he bellows in the sacred tunga of his Ulfen brethren "Back from the door..." introducing the fetid and breaking wood to the subtle kiss of skaggig...
Power Sunder Damage: 1d12+4+3
...a brutal and explosive cracking sounding as the door implodes and comes off it's hinges. Through the detritus the Ulfen leers "Ragnar, Ulfen blooded and long descended get of Olof Skötkonung is come. The eater is dead, his hund split by my blade... if you mean us harm come out and I will give you the death you crave... if not then speak... our ears are open."
On cue, the door explodes and a worthy man enters. Sagol steps forward with calm confidence. Well you meet us, Olof, and therefore Ságol þunorslieht, Skald of the ancestors and Old Ice will meet you well.
Sagol extends his free hand.
Muli and Disa move back, allowing Ragnar to do the heavy lifting whilst Luke covers his actions, lest any of these souls prove hostile.
The wild alchemist and shield maid make an odd couple, as they prepare their fallen comrades bodies for funeral rites.
Kylar listens through the sounds of battle outside his dank cell. Deliverance, or more trouble? Then again, what sort of trouble could be worse than imminent consumption by these cursed cannibals?
The half-elf winces at his own thoughts. Don't wonder that, you fool. The gods are ever inventive.
When the din dies away, Kylar reaches for the only possible weapon to hand - an old shattered leg bone from some past victim of the Hinderlings, no doubt long since made an entré of his current captors. The newcomers may not be any friendlier; but if Kylar had a chance for freedom before him, he'd do what he could to seize it...