With Karmid blocking her view, Lia moves to the other side of the the statue, focusing on the strange snake woman.
She then starts a summoning spell.
I'm happy to put Ro wherever you need her if you have some options to exercise Lia. Sickened condition on Xanesha would be a godsend. In the next round Ro will need her move action for Studied Target so she could throw a starknife rather than close in, but Ro would lose her invisibility. I'm pretty sure Xanesha has reach so it's harder to close in to melee without AoO's when it's gone.
Ro won't be much more than a mosquito in this fight. I can still add a couple of buffs to bring Ro's attack bonus to a total of +15 and damage to +10. But that's one attack per round and get's her to approximately 50% chance of success. Ro can cast Mirror Image to extend this for a round or two.
By contrast Xanesha will be close to auto-success on attacks. I give Ro 3 rounds in melee with Xanesha before Ro's dead. Good damage rolls on Xanesha's part brings that down to 2 rounds. This is where our miserable WBL comes in to play. If Ro just had the Blinkback Belt she needs she wouldn't have to close for melee. As it stands she has 3 starknives and can only afford to enchant the last one given the small size of her arcane pool.
Karmid, I think it's time you start two-handing that earthbreaker. We can't afford any attack penalties.
Ro is going to try to provide some distraction so Xanesha isn't concentrating solely on Karmid, but there won't be many rounds of that so you'll need to make them count.
Drasven, how much healing can you muster? We need extra rounds to kill her. She can simply kill us all faster than we can kill her, and if Karmid is removed from the fight we're pretty well screwed.
Karmid hacks at the creature, but she bats aside all of his advances with her longspear.
One more of the images does, however, disappear, leaving only a single copy of the snake lady.
Alright Mother Moon, I need you to have my back right here and now. If this is what you've been asking for all along, don't let me down.
Ro enchants her starknife and slips in behind Xanesha. Once she's positioned she tries to slash as much snake open as she possible can.
Ro's starknife makes a nasty cut along the masked creatue's side, causing it to involuntarily twitch and flick its tail to knock the young woman over.
Ro bobs and weaves to avoid the flicking tail?
Drasven prays for the gods to take their side in this battle, asking for their blessing.
Drasven is a sudden burst of divine epiphany finds himself slightly stronger as power he hadn't realized he's being suppressing bursts forth to fill his being. Deep inside he wonders if it was enough to lend aid to his current companions given that right now, they needed Karmid up to get all of Xanesha's attention then he'll be giving Karmid all of his too.
Even though the cut Ro gave her still bleeds, Xanesha seems more worried about the giant Shoanti on the other side. She turns toward him and the jewels on her snaky crown begin to glow, bathing Karmid in a sickly green light.
Stiffening for a second, Karmid screeches through the magic of the mask...
"EEaeeaaacchhhhhhh! NOOOO! Die witch!"
Stepping up and following...
Thunder and Fang(Large Size)!
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The magic stiffens Karmid's muscles, making his attacks appear uncoordinated. His swings go wide as Xanesha simply side-steps them.
I was just looking for a little bit of color from you so that we are not just stuck with "I attack, I do x damage." Just something to add some visual dynamism to the combat.
With some time up close Ro gets a little more familiar with how Xanesha moves. It doesn't add to her comfort though, Xanesha is huge and disturbingly quick. Ro becomes convinced it won't be long at all before she becomes a red smear on the wall. When Xanesha repositions, Ro glances at Lia with worry.
With everything going on, only a single celestial skunk answers Lia's summons.
Not wasting any time, it valiantly sprays it's musk all over Xaneesha.
Lia makes use of the distraction, moving back slightly, then calls into being a cloud of noxious vapors inspired by the skunk, but significantly more potent.
With no one paying attention to him, the screeching Couatl phases out of existance, fading away into tiny butterfly-like wisps of magical residue before vanishing completely.
Drasven proceeds to cast a spell...
and resolutely steps forward to block their foe from any attempt to side step them.
Are you casting that on yourself Drasven?
, success!
The serpentine woman visibly reacts to both the stinking cloud and the skunk's spray. She quickly moves away from the clouds, careful not to draw too much of Karmid and Ro's attention as she climbs the walls of the belltower, positioning herself up on the roof and then stabs at the cornered woman. Luckily for the diminutive musician, the poison effects still linger and her attack seems half-hearted.
, miss!
Feeling his size power finish for the day, Karmid's birthmark itches a little as he step closer to finish the fight faster. He then moves to follow up on the snake-lady, trying harder to hit the elusive wench!
Thunder and Fang!
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"Oh. The roof is not there. I didn't notice before.", Lia notices the failure in her plan.
But there was nothing left to do but trust in the Song of the Spheres - letting magic form around her hands freely - without any direction or plan, the suddenly points at Xaneesha with her fingers, making a noise she never heared before "Pew, pew", and shoots two concentrated Rays of Fire at the oversized Snake.
The dwarf attempts to move in and get the snake lady's attention after calling upon divine protection from his patron. Moving he attempts to get around her.
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As Xanesha moves more or less by and over her, Ro whips around to slash at her underbelly.
Lia's bolts of flame fly unerringly toward the serpentine woman, but she seems either not aware of them or does not seem to care if she gets hit. Inches before they impact her side, the flaming projectiles scatter as they transform into glowing runic symbols that glance off Xanesha's skin.
"I told you I was a god, little mage. You'll have to try harder than that," she cackles from benath her medusa mask.
Her laughter is cut short as Ro's weapon cuts a deep cut on her tail, causing her to whip around and glare at her. She then switches her longspear to hold it in a single hand as her hands sketch out magical sigils in the air.
A second later she disappears, but both Karmid and Ro feel her moving past them in a northerly direction.
Feeling the snake-woman move past, he knows he cannot find her easiy without help now...Karmid takes a chance and tries a radical idea.
"Drasven! MOVE AWAY!"
Stepping up to the base of the giant winged statue, Karmid slams his earthbreaker into the delicate looking ankles of the statue, then slams the point of his adamantium klar into it...trying to shatter and wedge a break to cause the whole thing to fall in a certain direction...then one more slam with his hammer to make sure it falls!
Thunder and Fang!
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The nasty look from Xanesha makes Ro think she's caught her attention in a bad way. Ro takes the moment of respite to add some protection.
"Peilikuvia minun suojastani!"
When her incantation is completed there are a whole lot of Ro's standing around.
Karmid hammers at the angelic statue, striking it at its weakest point and causing it to first begin to sway and then topple over toward the northeast. There is a dull thud as it impacts something as it fall, followed by a brief scream. The statue never hits the ground as it seems to be propped up by something ... something invisible.
Drasven hops onto the statue making his way over to where the likely figure of their foe might be.
"Give it up Xanesha, It's over." he tries to inform her.
With careful steps, Drasven makes his way over to where he believes her to be.
Drasven does not receive a response from their still invisible foe who has not moved from her location under the statue, other than what sound to be cursing in a language none of you understand.
Lia looks at the space clearly occupied by Xanesha below the statue and pulls something from her spell component pouch.
"She seems to be trapped under there, but I'll try to ... well, let me know if anyone sees her move."
You hear the sound of Xanesha straining against the weight of the statue, but it only seems to move an inch, keeping the creature still trapped.
After a few moments of labored breathing you hear: "Well, we seem to have reached an impasse, so I have a deal I would like to make. Despite my position here, I can tear any of you to shreds should you come too close. What if we call this a draw?"
Karmid calmly nods at the others and backs a ways off. He then puts his hammer down carefully so he can grab it quickly. Pulling out his bow, he nocks it calmly and points it at Xanesha's prone and trapped form...
"Let me make myself perfectly clear MONSTER:"
...and fires.
He quickly nocks another arrow...
"You are in no position to negotiate, and we do not take orders from a creature that endangers innocent lives, and seeks out insane people to do their dirty work for them!"
He spits on the ground as if even talking to the creature makes him sick...
"Talk! Why are you here! Why did you support that insane cult of murderers! Speak now...and we may just turn you over to the city for punishment. Otherwise..."
Drasven chuckles.
"Is that a bluff?" he points out the arrow surely sticking out of her.
"You seem to be under a lot of pressure and I'm sure being stoned stuck isn't much of a help for you." he pauses.
"Ending you here and now will clear in a small part your horrendous deeds."
You can clearly see a momentary spurt of blood and a grunt as Karmid's arrow strikes the invisible creature and disappears.
Ro is gobsmacked by Xanesha's audacity in offering a "draw" given her circumstances. However, Ro is willing to talk. There may be something of value to be learned from her.
After Karmid's arrow has hit, which makes an excellent point to illustrate what she's about to say, Ro answers.
"A draw? What are you offering in return? Let's be honest here, we'd be doing you a great favor in sparing your life. You aren't reciprocating. As you know now, we don't have to get close to you. If you want to call what you're asking for a draw to salve your ego, fine. But brass tacks is you're asking us to not kill you. What do we get? It better be really good."
The reply to Ro comes quickly in an angry shout from under the statue: "First stop trying to kill me if you want to talk!"