Seeing a gap open up in the melee , Machaera tries to get into position for when her grenade finally goes off.
In the meantime, she sheathes her dagger in magic and slashes low at the thug unbalanced by the Albatross’ furious attack.
If so, Yanis targets the closets standing guard and Physically tells his body to collapse knocking the guard prone.
Combat results
Io trips another guard, but the second one manages to avoid her sweeping feat. Albatross's baton slams into the fallen guard, knocking the air out of his lungs, while Machaera's dagger sinks into his thigh, drawing blood. However, he is still conscious. Headsman's axe swings awry, the odd angle from the stairs throwing his aim off. The Black Merlin's club slams into the guard he shot, drawing a grunt but not dropping him. Yanis's mental command forces another guard to go prone.
Guard 4 attempts to stand up. If he survives, he swings at Io.
Guard 4 stands up and swings at Io
Guard 5 stands up and swings at Io
Guard 6 drops his bow and swings at Io
Guard 7 fires an arrow at Albatross
Guard 8 draws his longsword and slashes at the Black Merlin
The guards spectacularly fail to connect with any of their attacks. Apparently they're still working out the kinks with those longswords and bows...
The black Merlin sees the guard in front of him reaching for his sword and uses the cape attached to his free hand to wrap and deflect the coming swing. In a fluid motion his other hand brings the club around again to strike the guard's temple.
Caught up in the attempt to deflect the swing, the Merlin's own swing goes well wide of the mark. Keeping a mental count of the grenade in his head, the beaked man brings his short cape up to cover his eyes.
Io, in the middle of an airborne roundhouse sweep of the next two thugs, moves her knee ever so slightly to connect solidly with the rising thug's temple.
She doesn't let it distract her from her main goal, though, and tries to knock down the two guards that attacked her.
As the thug caught between Io, herself, and the Albatross tries to rise, Machaera aims for the man’s side as Io aims higher.
As the melee continues to swirl around her, the corner of her mind which has been counting down realizes that if this particular grenade has had a slower-burning fuse, it’s nonetheless going to go off now. With a surprisingly gently bang, rocketing sparks and streamers of smoke explode in all directions from where the grenade landed.
As the mind-bending lights and fumes spread, Machaera takes a desultory swing with her dagger at the thug caught between her, Headsman, and Io, but focusing all of her attention on not having her spell interrupted as she tries to exploit the effects of her grenade.
Machaera embraces the heady dance of dagger and spell, and her painstaking practice pays off as her spell takes form despite the confusion of battle, bursting in a prismatic blast made all the more dangerous by the grenade that's just gone off.
Io barely bats an eye at the explosion of color, too busy sinking her foot into her latest target's face.
[dice=Will]1d20+3
Headsman surges into the room with a roar and makes his way to the center of the room, making a beeline for the man he recognizes as Baldrago.
"Remember me, you filthy pig?! My pops owes you one!" he roars, hoisting his axe and swinging it at the man.
Combat results so far without Yanis
The Black Merlin gets caught in his cape, and his club misses his opponent. Io, Machaera and the Albatross stab or beat the guard that stood up to death. Io trips another guard who falls prone from the sweep kicks. The grenades goes off in a spray of bright colors, dazzling both the Black Merlin and the guards. Machaera's rainbow spray of massive overkill knocks three guards into Desna's embrace. Headsman's axe slams into the guard Black Merlin shot, dropping him bleeding into the Boneyard. All of the guards are either unconscious, dead, or dying
Rubbing his eyes the Black Merlin blinks around the room looking for threats. Seeing none, as far as he can through his half-vision, he retrieves manacles from his pack.
'A bot sturdier than rope. Figure we can slap these on Whichever one is Baldrago.' He says, holding up the restraints.
Yuelral be praised, Machaera thinks, her heart still racing. She rocks nervously on the balls of her feet, ready for more trouble.
“Sorry about that, it should wear off in a few moments. Manacles sound good for him,” she says, her glance darting restlessly around the room. “but do you think we could knock some of these other heads into a deeper sleep? This enchantment isn’t one that will hold them that long…”
"If we all kindly moved up I could help a bit more." Yanis says overly politely. "These fine gentlemen seem to be in need of a doctor." Yanis targets one of the standing men and will him to the floor again.
DC 15 will save
Io punches them all in the face while they're down.
Before she can even adjust her own stance, Machaera sees Io spring into brutally efficient action, making sure that the gang members won’t go anywhere for a good while.
Instead, she turns to Yanis as the doctor appears at the top of the stairs. Catching the undertone to his remark that these men need a doctor, Machaera replies grimly, with a nod, “Let’s keep it that way.”
A moment later, her mage’s mind turning over the possibilities, she adds, “Doctor, the way you connect to people, and perform your healing… could you draw upon someone else’s rather than your own reserves?”
As she asks, Machaera’s glance combines with her restless posture to suggest nothing other than a cat anticipating a particularly scrumptious mouse. Something to bear in mind, if he can heal us and keep our foes indisposed at the same time.
"So... which one's.... that guy we need? Vanca-something,"
Shrugging his shoulders, he sits by Baldrago's unconscious form. "... I can't believe this bastard's one of the guys who took out my pops. Cowards had to gang up on him if they were all this weak."
Yanis will stabilize the two dying men. "I can draw the life out of people, to heal my own wounds or those whom I am connected too." Yanis tells Machaera
Machaera nods at Yanis’ explanation, filing that tidbit of information away as a useful thing to bear in mind. To Headsman’s question, she replies, looking around the room for clues or a likely candidate, “Vancaskerkin, wasn’t it? I think the Field Marshal said he was a good bowman, which doesn’t seem to describe any of these men, really, and that he used a spear close in. What else?”
Oh, right. She hesitates a bit as she tries to find a half-way to tactful way of putting it to a group mainly composed of human men. “And he’s supposed to be a handsome man,” she concludes briefly, her eyes flickering disinterestedly over the unconscious thugs. Sensibly, Machaera keeps her thoughts to herself as she tries to think what she’s looking for. So, a bit short, stouter than most anyone, generally square around the features…
'so which of them is our target?" Yanis asks while tending to the wounded men.
None of them appear to be Vancaskerkin. However, as Yanis tends to the wound and Machaera opens the door to the south, a arrow flies out at her!
“Ai! Found him!” Machaera cries out, forcing words around a scream of pain. Gritting her teeth, she tries to keep her arm steady as she squeezes off her own shot, her pistol’s report thunderous in the enclosed space.
With that retort, she throws herself into cover to one side of the door, holstering her weapon as she goes. Bracing herself against the wall, she breaks off the end of the shaft as close to the wound as she can, her face twisting up against the feeling of the arrow shifting in her chest. Vivid and blasphemous Elven curses run through her mind as she tries to focus against the pain. Calistria’s curves! It’s nothing personal, man!
"Now you've done it!" Headsman shouts, pumping himself up for another fight. He charges full bore into the other room to attempt and corner the archer, and swings his axe in a brutal low sweep.
Stepping out to line up his shot, the Black Merlin watches Headsman trip the bowman. Dammit boy, you're making him hard to shoot!. Squeezing the trigger, he adds his own explosive shot to Machaera's.
The archer falls as Headman's axe knocks his legs out from under him. Two bullets slam into him as they sneer at his chainmail.
Yanis moves from the man he is tending to to see if Machaera is ok. "I will have to pull it out or break the shaft off and then cut it out later." Yanis says while moving her away from the door if she will let him.
“See, now that’s someone who knows how to use a bow,” Machaera says weakly, trying to keep her own spirits up, as Yanis approaches. When Headsman charges past, racing the Black Merlin’s reflexes, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor, presumably not the young Shoanti’s, she gives the doctor a nod.
“Pull it out,” she encourages, already trying to calculate a safe approach.
Yanis pulls the arrow out, placing his hand on Macaera's wound and willing it to close up.
"Don't get shot again." Yanis says with a smile.
"Quick! Seize him while he's down!"
The Albatross rushes forward, bringing his padded baton down on the archer's head.
Io raises her shield and rushes forward, barreling through the door right after her compatriots, kicking off the wall and landing on the archer.
The Albatross' baton slams into the archer, cracking his skull, but Io's shield fails to connect solidly with him.
"Surrender and save yourself the headache!"
The Albatross readies an action to club him with his sap if he attempts an attack or tries to get up.