Gad'larr's opponent never sees the blur of motion that is the half-orc, too stunned by the spectacle of the 'will-o-wisps' that draw his eye. He is very quickly a shattered broken mess on the floor, and covered in burns.
Brezik's opponent fares no better, and with one solid axe chop goes down hard, barely breathing.
Crow takes flight, complaining his entire way to Gad.
Vivian crushes her opponent's chest completely, breaking through the messy block of shortsword on mace. It does cause a faint ringing to sound, iron scraping against iron, causing a shiver to run up the woman's spine that, along with her unfamiliar speed, makes her miss her next swing.
Allister does not need words, his sword speaking for him as he cuts down another Acolyte, the iron mask giving rise to remembered injustices.
The two remaining acolytes shake at the power your group has shown, but with their black-robed leader urging them on they attack once more. Allister's opponent does his best to slip around the large Paladin without drawing his ire.
The acolyte leaves a wide opening in his defenses as he moves around, one that is easily exploitable.
The man in the other part of the ruins, after seeing his companion struck down without mercy quakes, but analyzes his opponents. Deciding that the priest looks less armored (mostly due to his lack of shield) the white robed man stabs forward with his short blade.
The blade doesn't come anywhere near Belathorian and is pushed harmlessly aside by the handle of Bel's scythe.
As Bel blocks the cultist's clumsy strike he turns the momentum of the blow right back at his foe.
and is moving to the next foe before the body hits the ground.
Aglanda doesn't like the way things are going, but prepares her sword and shield for the combat ahead.
"Die in the name of the Living God!" is all she cries before taking position.
The woman has clearly had some training as her two pronged assault with sword and shield strikes home.
Easily keeping in step with the masked woman, Gad brandishes the emerald fire of his hands and speaks aloud with heavy scorn, pointedly ignoring the minor cuts she gives him.
"You are finally run to ground like the dogs you are!"
He then suddenly attacks with a blur, and speaks aloud with each attack!
"For the Desecration of Kassens' Tomb!"
-Includes Dragon Style!
+Stunning Fist!(Fort DC:15)
+ Flurry!
"For the LIE that is your so-called religion!"
-Includes Dragon Style!
+ Iterative
"For the innocent lives lost to your petty ignorance!"
-Includes Dragon Style!
+ Flurry!(Haste Bonus)
"FINALLY! I am Gad'larr Fireblood...and the EVERFLAME will have its Justice!!"
-Includes Dragon Style!
Looking around Brezik shakes his head as Allister finishes the last initiate. Brezik full out sprints up to the leader of the Razmiran contingent.
Your men are all dead... surrender!
Qina had to look away as Vivian's fury was unleashed. She staggered backwards a bit before turning and hurrying away after Gad and the others. She skidded to a halt half way there though as she witnessed the violence that both Gad and Allister had released upon their foes. She didn't necessarily disagree with it, but to see blade slice through flesh and fist cave in skull, well it was so brutal. Yes these men were trying to kill them and yes they must defend themselves, but to see men killed was still a somewhat new phenomenon to Qina. Undead and monsters were one thing, but these were men, evil men yes, but men nonetheless. Qina hoped to never be on the other side of those blades, or any blades for that matter.
Crow landed on Gad's shoulder momentarily and delivered the arcane armor.
The last acolyte takes the full force of Allister's attack but remains standing, and swings back when the Herald is in position on the Paladin's opposite side.
Unlike his fellows he manages to slip through the plates of Al's armor and slide his sword into the man's side.
Gad'larr quickly comes to the big man's aid, dealing with the Herald. His first quick is barely blocked by the woman's light shield. His punch she stumbles a step away, but she loses track of his elbow which drops into her stomach, causing her to keel forward just in time for Gad's fist to crash into her face, shattering the iron mask protecting it. Aglanda drops to the ground bleeding heavily from her ears, nose, and mouth while Allistair finishes off the last Razmiran with impunity.
Looking down at the pathetic scrap of a person, Gad stops suddenly his hands and feet still aflame in emerald.
"Irori be praised: Challenge completed. Justice will have its due. Vivian, she is yours! I no longer care what happens to her."
Turning, he then speaks to the others.
"Search the dead. Gather what we need. I will search the surrounding area while the speed spell still lasts to make sure this fight has not drawn other threats."
He is then a blur as he takes off, his green fire diminishing as he goes!
As Vivian kneels down to the woman she realizes that the Razmiran is unconscious, and might end up choking on the blood streaming from her mouth and nose. As the corpses are gathered and sifted through most are only holding mundane gear, daggers, shortswords, armor, all stamped recently. Only the woman has something special, a couple of potions, beautifully crafted gear, a pouch with several hundred gold pieces, and a note, smeared somewhat illegibly.
Interlopers,
Yo- ---- -ot stop the glor- ---- is Razmir! The Liv--- God fills me --th hi- -----gth, and with it - -ill capture the ----- ---- to lay at his feet. --u may ha-- -eaten Aglanda, bu- --- is among --- --ast of my follo----, an- --u will not survive ----ld you figh- --. Turn back now and ----- fr-- -hence y-- -ame, lest Pharasm- --- you i- --r Boneyard!
Brezik helps examine the gear looking at the quality and condition to see if any of it is worth lugging back to civilization.
Bloody work this is... I had expected more of a fight actually... shame that so many have chosen to follow the fake God.
Interlopers,
Yo- ---- -ot stop the glor- ---- is Razmir! The Liv--- God fills me --th hi- -----gth, and with it - -ill capture the ----- ---- to lay at his feet. --u may ha-- -eaten Aglanda, bu- --- is among --- --ast of my follo----, an- --u will not survive ----ld you figh- --. Turn back now and ----- fr-- -hence y-- -ame, lest Pharasm- --- you i- --r Boneyard!
You can not stop the glory that is Razmir! The Living God fills me wirt his strength, and with it I will capture the ----- ---- to lay at his feet. You may have beaten Aglanda, but she is among the least of my followers, and you will not survive should you fight me. Turn back now and ----- from whence you came, lest Pharasma see you in her Boneyard!
Bloody work this is... I had expected more of a fight actually... shame that so many have chosen to follow the fake God.
Only Aglanda's stuff seems to be worth bringing back, everything else is standard equipment that any quartermaster would give their troops.
|
"Qina, I don't know what you did to me back there, but I liked it. I've never felt so fast.."
Allister watches over the others' shoulders and looks at the smudged wordpaper, feeling no more puzzled than if all the letters were clear. He shrugs, then goes about cleaning his blade.
"You're right, Brezik. It doesn't feel right beating weak foes."
When Gad'larr gets back from his hasty recon and finds out the group must continue forward, his look of disappointment is brief, but visible.
"I will look for the where we need to go next then."
Gad finds the trail again, still leading towards the center of the city and the third ring, though there are fewer tracks than before.
|
Vivian stabalizes the woman instinctually, but doesn't heal her. She then begins to wonder what she's even doing, with the rising golden tide coming soon none of them have a chance.
As Brezik reads out his interpretation of the letter she nods thoughtfully, "I think it's capture the golden city, and return from whence you came. Good job! I never knew you were so good at word puzzles! Luckily this didn't slow us much, if we press on we might be able to catch then unaware."
Packing up the valuables and heading out on Gad's tail, Viv stops as they reach the third ring. "I can't make out a thing amongst this gold."
Grinning with pride at Allister, Qina remarked "I don't know. You just needed to be faster, but did you see Gad jump? That was like, amazing. He was almost flying, like Crow."
"What?" squawked the bird. "I'll have you know I can fly rings around that..."
"Crow! You hush!". Qina chastised the bird and sent him back to finish his nap. He hopped up on her shoulder again and walked back to his resting spot on her back.
"You can't lay a city at anyone's feet. Perhaps there is some powerful artefact in this city. One that can give Razmir what he truly desires, divinity."
There is a glint in Bel's eye as he muses
"Either way, the answer lies in there."
As he makes ready to leave he stops himself
There are dead here, dead and dying. They are people like us, just caught on the wrong spiral. And yet my thoughts drift... Forgive me my lady.
"These souls wander through different lands now, through the garden of Pharasma. Judge them swiftly and true my lady and move them on... It's about to get crowded."
Hurrying onwards barely another minute passes before you're before another bridge spanning the canals of molten gold, Crow complaining every step of the way about how hot it is and how much hotter it is getting. Two gold-plated columns carved to resemble female warriors flank its entrance, each with a large falchion point down in the road.
Creeping along with Gad' Brezik pulls up short and approaches the rest of the party, reaching into his backpack for a piece of cloth wrapped around something..
Looks like we got more of these Skeletons to fight.
He opens the cloth revealing a large chunk of cheese. He breaks a piece of the cheese off and tosses it at crow.
They obviously have seen us and are gonna be ready.
The dwarf shoves a piece of cheese in him mouth.
Prbly dsnt mttr... (Gulp!)... which way we go. We're gonna have to fight em... We want any prep going in?
Looking at his friends Brezik smiles with little crumbles of cheese easily seen in his beard. and holds out the cheese towards aforementioned companions..
Oh!.. did anyone want some?
"Oh my goodness Crow, you must be so hungry. I can't believe I forgot to feed you!" Following Brezik's lead, Qina pulled out a small piece of bread and laid it in her palm, offering it up to the bird perched on her shoulder. She took advantage of the distraction to slip a wand out of her belt and tap the bird with it. Magical force armor shimmered around the bird as it pecked at the bread.
"Crow, I want you to fly above and see if you can see anyone else in this place. We're looking to stop some bad people from doing bad stuff and we have to find them fast. As soon as you see someone other than us, I want you to come tell Gad and then me okay. Him and then me" she finished, pointing at Gad. And since you're going to be out for a while, this should help keep you safe too.
Qina recited the archaic words once, and then again and again, first touching Crow, and then moving over to touch Gad and finally Allister. That should help keep you guys safe.
"Uhm...is it just me or are those golden column sword-thingies moving? Maybe it's just the heat. It makes things all hazey and blurry."
"More animated constructs then. Like the walking pile of masks from the Razimiran temple, or the giant Shield Warrior from Kassen's tomb. However there are two of them this time. I have never heard of such defensive constructs appearing in pairs before. We will have to use different tactics than before. We can't just overwhelm one and ignore the other enemy while it attacks our flanks."
Finally sounding a bit tired and weary, Gad thanks Qina for the Fire Resistance with a nod and suggests something new to the group.
"I would suggest the following tactic: I will attempt to pass the statue-defenders, gaining their attention and ire, if that's possible. Then with their attention focused on me, you all attack a single construct, while I continue to attempt to distract the other one as best I can. When the one you attack falls finally, we can then all focus on the remaining construct. Does this sound reasonable?"
Crow takes flight from Qina's shoulder, using the constant updraft of heat to soar easily. Flying above the bridge the statues do nothing to stop him, so he continues on, hugging the inner wall of the 2nd tier. He finds the entrance between the 2nd and 3rd tiers and stops hovering just before a bridge over the molten gold. Staring up at him, almost daring him to try and cross is an enormous skeleton, covered in gold plating. Its bony wings creak shifting as though it were about to take flight. Its massive jaws open, revealing teeth the size of daggers. And the sockets of its eyes glow a hellish red, staring up at the bird.
Gad nods eagerly and performs a few stretches and fast movements to get his blood moving.
"You be careful" Qina said as she wrapped her little arms around the monk's waist.
"We'll come get you as fast as we can, right guys?" It wasn't really a question, but Qina struggled with what the right words were. In the end, it sufficed.
With the parties preps in place Brezik charges at the closer column giving a huge scream.
AAGGGGHHHHGGGHHHH
Clearly aiming to bisect the thinnest portion of the feminine constructs body his axe finds its mark.
Swearing out loud, Gad points at the one Brezik charges and hisses.
"Deal with that one quickly!"
He then moves closer to the other one to help distract it as he originally planned!
Brezik's charge is as accurate as it is devastating, finding the weakest portion of the construct and shearing part of it away, leaving crumbled stone beneath. Even the gold covering its body does not stop the terrifying blow, and a slight shattering sound is heard from the construct.
Gad'larr has less luck, slipping along some minor scree along the edge of the ruins and bouncing off the other construct, leaving neither the worse for wear.
As the others rushed into combat, Qina glanced around nervously. She had faith that they could handle themselves. She had seen them overcome so many obstacles together, but as she stood alone, she began to worry about herself. She pulled out her wand of force armor and used it on herself, then she whistled loudly or Crow.
Allister feels a powerful charge run through his sword as it smashes into the construct, followed by that same shattering sound, and a distinctive from his greatsword.
The gold plating over top of the construct diverts enough of Al's blow that it doesn't damage the internal stone too badly, and allows the statue to bring its sword to bear.
Crow, some ways in the distance, hears Qina's whistle and makes an about-face, staying well away from the airspace above the bridge in front of him.
|
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Vivian moves in and behind Al and Brezik, stopping more in the middle of the landing and holding her mace up towards the sky, "Strike through their defenses! "
For a moment Vivian expects lightning to strike and imbue her mace with a fragment of Gorum himself. Alas, she shakes off the disappointment and readies to engage with her allies.
Bel steps up beside Viv and mutters a prayer to his goddess
"Guide me, favour me, that I may complete my spiral"
His drawn scythe begins to faintly glow pure white.
The constructs begin throwing their blades around in dizzying spirals, the edges of the golden blades keen in the light from below. The one pushed by Gad'larr responds with a slash, blade arcing for his throat, while to the south Brezik finds himself hard pressed by the construct he inflicted so much damage to.
Both Gad and Brezik are able to dance out of the way none the worse for wear, though the statues size them up once more.
Gad begins to dance around, flipping and spinning acrobatically, careful to keep statue's attention for the full round.
With a silent grace Bel steps into the fray beside Brezik. Efficiently sweeping his scythe at the statue's midriff.
Belathorian's strike shears clear through the statue, which crumbles to the ground in a pile of gold-plated rubble and a gold-plated falchion. The attack is not without sacrifice however as the energy which coursed through Al's blade does the same through Bel's, a small shattering sound is heard, then another , this time from the haft of Bel's scythe.
Brezik looks down at the broken statue on the ground and then back op at Abel with a big smile.
Wow Bell... YOU ROCKED HIS WORLD!!! Al.. you get it...cause the statues are made of rock. Hehehe.
With that the dwarf moves to flank the other statue trying to twist out of its reach at the last second.
Once in place Brezik swings at the golden feminine form trying to take advantage of its divided attentions.
The construct notices Brezik as he rushes by, but is unable to stop him from setting himself up for a massive swing of his axe.
The shattering noise splits the air, but again Brezik's axe is safe. As with the last statue its armor and gold are no match for the power behind the dwarf's brawny arms.
Allister lands another ferocious hit, this time the magic of the statue washing around the blade rather than filling it.