***
Derek continues his inspirational song, grants his spiritual brother a measure of relief from his pain ( ), and finally draws his shortbow, for added ranged support on the following turn.
***
Livia turns invisible, knowing she has no further business being in this fight, then hides in one of the alcoves.
***
The two drakes both attack their new winged foe, one by way of full-attack, while the other selects a trajectory allowing it to attack while getting into position for a pounce on the following turn .
The maneuvering drake misses with its bite, while the other easily hits Xerath with a powerful snap of its jaws, but misses with the tail slap.
***
***
Xerath bravely attempts to fight off the drakes even after taking fangs to his shoulder.
Round 3, Init 19
Appario fires at Drake #3.
to hit; (heroism, bard,cover)
damage. (bard)
to hit; (heroism, bard,cover)
damage. (bard)
Pot Crit:
to hit; (heroism, bard,cover)
more damage. (bard)
Yahirma begins concentrating on the staff of swarming insects in an attempt to coax out its magic.
Never really used this before, wonder how much use I'll be with it?
Taking a step around the corner, Derek lets loose a swarm of arrows at the furthest dragon, not really trained to shot into melee.
Appario's and Derek's arrows tear the furthest drake from the sky, while Xerath's and The Beast of War's melee attacks cause the nearest drake to crash down onto the thorny bushes beneath it, where it bleeds out upon the thorns skewering it.
The Beast suffers from moving into the thorns to get at the drake.
***
Well this is awkward!
Yahirma's staff-imbued spell completes, and she sweeps the staff in a wide arc to point at the far side of the room so that the swarms fall among the thorny bushes—hopefully to chew apart the hazardous flora to clear a path for the Beast.
Appario puts away his bow, watching to see what happens with the thorns.
"Maybe I can hack our way through," Appario suggests.
Yahirma nods to immense, bull-headed warrior and begins to pull equipment out of her pack. She holds out the giant halberd.
"It is good to fight alongside you once more, Shu-Ak'eh-Di. Your weapon is sharp and ready, but your partner in flesh is wounded. We shall find battle momentarily--once he and our comrades are healed.
Yahirma tosses the first wand back into her pack and pulls out another.
And finally, she casts a healing spell.
"Be warned that our resistance to fire is likely no more." Yahirma cautions.
"Be aware that we are after a fiend of great power, and we suspect he is nearby."
They can fly, and can attack with bite, claws, wings, and tail. Their bite is poisonous and carries disease, while their tail can constrict those it catches.
They only take full damage from good-aligned silver weapons, and regenerate unless damaged by good-aligned weapons or spells during the previous round.
They also resist spells, cause fear among those within 20 ft, and have a host of spell-like abilities of their own.
"I will manage."
Appario draws his sword and re-attaches his heavy shield, feeling the protection will be needed for going through the thorny patch.
He will use Extortion to chop as well, but would prefer to dance, squeeze, and acrobat around the plants. He will head towards the door that Yahirma pointed out earlier.
***
"You know, I have a question for you all.
Do we assume that the people who bound the pit fiend in the first place was reasonably competent in what they did?"
"Given the intricate devices we've seen that siphon the fiend's energy, I imagine they were competent," Yahirma notes with a grin. "Were I a fiend bound to a machine that drained my essence for centuries, I'm sure I would break out at the earliest opportunity."
"Precisely, Derek nods sagely before continuing, and if they were competent, they were probably careful.
Binding a NORMAL pit fiend is hard enough, but Liebdaga is no ordinary fiend."
Derek taps the side of his nose conspiratorially.
"Imagine you were in that situation, would you not consider the fact Yahirma just pointed out? The fiends unwillingness to stay nicely bound?"
"I imagine that, they would have made some sort of safeguard to use if this situation came to pass, possibly more than one.
And I imagine that at least one would be close at hand where the problem would occur.
So as we get closer to our goal, we should be extra careful to keep an eye out for anything that could help us deal with our none-to-friendly neighbourhood pit fiend pal."
Appario grimaces at the talk of pit fiends, still somewhat disbelieving that this could possibly be the great evil; however, recent events (including the painting of poorness) have shaken that belief a bit.
Nonetheless, he puts on a brave front.
"Why don't we just pay him to either remain self-bound or sign a contract with him to leave this plane forever. That should be easy, right?"
Derek can't help but feel like he has missed something, and he scratches the back of his head as he thinks.
Then it suddenly comes to him as he beholds the magnificent splendour of the beast once more.
Having stored Dawnhunter safely in its sheath when he was forced to engage in ranged combat means the significance of the beast being here had not fully registered at first.
Slowly and with great care he puts a hand on the hilt and draws the blade forth.
As he watches a transformation begins to occur.
The golden veins that are interlaced in the red blade of Dawnhunter begins to dim, losing its golden glimmer turning into a deep oily black.
The soft blue sparkle of electricity that is playing along the blade also change, instead of the blue they slowly darken into a angry red.
"Duskhunter..."
Shaking his head in wonder, Derek smiles a little at the changes that has happened in his life in such a short time.
The most amazing feeling is the clear-headedness that he had never experienced before.
Some was obviously due to the magical effect of the headband he now wore, but some was most likely born from experience.
As he closed his eyes he could pick out the soft music that each person gave off.
Being attuned to the song of magic had over time given him an ability to discern the tune of each soul attuned to magic.
There was Xerath's tune, a deep thrumming sound, which still contained a few angry off-key notes, but a lot fewer, like he had achieved some sort of personal closure.
Yahirmas was a soft whistle, deceptively smooth, with an eerie quality that spoke to her somewhat otherworldly presence.
Apparios music possessed a strange duality, one that was not always in harmony, but rather two sides, two notes struggling for harmony and sometimes not quite getting there.
Maddok had his own music to, but now it was drowned out by the deep rumble of the beast, impossible to discern underneath that pounding drum like rhythm.
And in the background, Livia, a cacophony of notes from several different instruments, but slowly, bit by bit falling into rhythm.
Far to go yet, but getting there at all could be considered a surprise.
The view of whatever lies behind the door is obscured by blackness; neither Xerath nor Yahirma can see through it.
Livia, feeling outmatched by the denizens down here, stays at a respectful distance from the door-openers, and can only report that she sees some kind of web covering the floor and walls beyond.
With your deathwatch eyes, you can tell that there's an undead creature nearby.
You can sense a mild smell of rot from within the blackness.
"So we watch for an emergency kill-trigger that could eject the fiend back to where he came from or kill him outright?" Yahirma wonders in response. "That sounds like a good possibility."
As Derek proceeds to look at his sword and look about in wonder, Yahirma smiles. "Hearing for the first time the web of energies that suffuse the world can be quite intoxicating, Derek. It can be quite addictive. Just be wary of your new senses, though. Most would discover them in a normal setting, but you are just now learning to smell with your head in a jar of mustard; you may find an already potent situation overwhelming."
She points to the door ahead. "Let us see what other wonders lie beyond."
Yahirma whispers in alarm. "It is dark within—darker than even I can see. An unnatural presence lurks therein, and I suspect it is undead."
Oh, all of the options I can imagine that are undead and could create such darkness are very bad, indeed.
Before Appario opens the door, he draws his wand of CLW and touches himself up.
Healing
Appario opens the door and draws Extortion.
When Yahirma whispers alarm, Appario moves to the side of the door, wondering what to do next.
"Be ready to move the moment it becomes light. Whatever this is might be able to make it dark again," Yahirma advises before attempting to banish the darkness.
"Strike hard. Strike fast."
Yahirma readily banishes the darkness, revealing another large chamber, similar in size to the previous one. The thin webs coating every surface of the chamber make it blatantly obvious that the background-scene of countless toiling slaves working to extract ore from endless mines while being harried by burning, whip-wielding devils is an illusion.
Instead, the chamber seems to be inhabited by only a single creature; a huge, eight-legged spidery abomination, half of its legs clinging to the western wall, with the remaining legs resting on the ground.
Past the creature, double doors at the end of the chamber lead west.
***
You recognize this creature as a Nightskitter, a Huge extraplanar undead creature in the nightshade family (all undead traits and nightshade traits are revealed); a group of loosely linked creatures formed by shadow and negative energy.
Nightskitters can attack with their powerful jaws, dealing cold damage and infusing victims with poison in addition to the injuries from the bite itself.
The webs they spin can be used to coat an area, producing an effect like that of unhallow, but can also be used to fling entangling webs onto other creatures. Creatures entangled by such a web suffer negative levels for as long as they remain entangled.
Nightskitters can climb as easily as they walk on the ground.
As above, plus: A nightskitter resists damage from weapons other than good-aligned silver weapons, and resist spells as well.
They are immune to cold, but are sickened in areas of bright light.
Nightskitters have good reflexes, enabling them to strike at all foes approaching them (ie: Combat Reflexes). They also enjoy using their mobility and reach to spring forward, attack, and retreat (ie: Spring Attack).
As above, plus: A nightskitter can also employ a number of spell-like abilities, among them deeper darkness and unholy blight at will, and limited daily uses of air walk, cone of cold, contagion, greater dispel magic, haste, hold monster, invisibility, and plane shift.
***
Current Initiative order:
30 - Livia
22 - Appario
10 - Xerath and the undead creature
7 - Derek
5 - Maddok
2 - Yahirma
***
Round 1, Init 22
"That thing is big and ugly. Do we have an attack plan?"
Appario delays to see what happens next.
Let's keep from being trapped at the door. It throws webs.
Xerath will delay also.
Following the delays, the undead creature taps on its webs with one long leg, and it's once again pitch black in the chamber.
***
Yahirma shouts up to Livia, raises a hand in an "on my mark" signal, and prepares to cast another spell.
"With all those webs there in the dark...if we could burn the webs down I think we'd give it a nasty surprise."
Derek holds back for now, not at all interested in going into the darkness.
Destroying it was the right thing to do, but I still wish we had the Morrowfall with us now.
Livia dutifully repeats Yahirma's words "She says you have to move quickly or not act at all! And to attack when the darkness disappears again!"
She then flies into a more suitable position for observing the spider.
***
A few seconds later, clicking sounds suggest, and Livia Infernally affirms, that the spider has moved ("It moved! It moved!").
Within moments, Yahirma once again sends the darkness back to its netherworld, revealing the spider's new position; slightly forward and more central.
***
***
The spider, ready for a potential oncoming of foes, snaps twice at the approaching Beast .
Momentarily surprised by The Beast leaping out of the vanishing darkness, the undead unluckily misses with both attacks.
***
Avoiding the double-snap of the undead's massive jaws, The Beast successfully latches onto it.
***
In any case, the shield spell expired over 400 posts ago, and you never recast it (even if you had, that was almost 30 minutes ago in game-time), so The Beast only has a +2 shield bonus currently.
Either way, the insight bonus means the 36 missed. Thanks for the breakdown :)