Some small part of Cassandra registered that Carinna was healed and back in the fight but she was too far gone to care. All her focus was now on the man in front of her.
After the first wild swipe, it took everything Cassandra had to instill a modicum of thought into her attacks. She couldn't flail wildly. That would get her no where against an obviously accomplished hunter. The combination of wild fury and focused hunter worked to great effect.
The Stag Lord managed to dodge away from Cassie's initial swipe, then she charges into him and starts tearing into him like a wild animal. Carinna shakes off the daze of unconsciousness and leaps back into the fray; the Stag Lord, skilled as he is, is not quite good enough to take an opening using a bow.
Telmarni hits the ground opposite her foster sister and steps in again, swinging from the flank.
Telmarni's blade hits, carrying with it the arcane remnants of a spell that she channels through the blade!
Kava steps over to the nigh-dead commander and stabilizes him.
The Stag Lord rumbles, "No matter." He casts his bow aside and as Carinna flails at him with her claws he uses one arm to ward her off - like a large man holding an angry cat at bay - while he drags his sword out of its scabbard with a rattle. "I see my lieutenants have left me. You should know that your defeat is assured; the Dark Lady has promised me much." He stabs at Carinna again, determined to end her.
...but she nimbly weaves out of the way of the blow.
Being held back like an animal made Cassandra even more furious and that meant even less control. Not a good thing. But a part of her registered the Stag Lord's cryptic words for later. Dark Lady?
She attacks with renewed vigor the Growing more wild and less accurate by the swing.
"Not you," grumbles the Stag Lord as he continues his assault on Carinna, as if he has some kind of grudge against her. He takes his hits as if he's just forcing his way through a winter storm.
Carinna manages to bat his sword aside at the last second, but is not quite in line for a centerline strike in retaliation.
Kava swings her glaive in an attempt to help make an opening...
(includes -4 for striking past soft cover)
...and manages to keep the Stag Lord's flank busy so that he can't defend as well against Telmarni.
Tel lashes out again...
...but even with Kava's help she isn't able to land a decisive blow.
Hatch, having decided that he waited long enough, clambers out of the secret passage and starts rushing down the center lane toward the battle to help however he can.
Vance moves up to Dovan and starts binding him as a prisoner.
The feathered bear-beast, having finished its feast, squeezes through some rubble and rushes at Kava from behind!
She lands a nasty hit on the creature as it closes. It lets out an angry squawk, but doesn't have a chance to retaliate... yet!
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The Stag Lord was a formidable opponent and Carinna did not know how much more she would be able to withstand his powerful attacks. She only hoped that after so many bruises, the man was also almost fainting.
Once more the girl attacked, this time with a far more precise slash. Seeing the attack connect, she tried to shake the man's confidence once more. "You could always surrender! There is no point in fighting a lost battle... you will never win!"
The Stag Lord brings his sword up for another vicious slash, and Carinna steps sideways at a thirty degree angle. The Stag Lord turns as she demands his surrender, and says, "Your blood will be the fertilizer for my lands! I've never lost-"
Her blade rides up alongside his quillons. The guards clang together and she pushes, throwing all of her weight against his arm in a desperate gamble. Already wounded and losing blood from Cassandra's strikes, his muscular, scarred arm lags for a moment, then, his elbow bends and her blade punctures his sternum. Somehow he pushes her off, but as her dueling sword exits the wound, bright blood pumps out of his bare, twisted chest, and a rattling gurgle escapes his mouth - the death rattle of a man with a hole in his lung, unable to breathe.
He sags against the wall, then his sword falls from his grip, and he slumps down to the ground.
The stag-boned helm falls away and leaves behind a half-bald, badly scarred face, with barely any lips and ruined features - a broken nose with visible cartilage where the flesh is gone, ears stubby and warped, eyelids twisted and incomplete. Huge, heavily muscled, covered in scars... but still just a man.
Then the roaring of the feathered monstrosity draws everyone back to the conflict at hand.
The anger fades from Cassandra just as the light does from the Stag Lord. He was an ugly man underneath but their must have been a reason for that. A bad one most likely. Maybe they could have talked him down. No, probably not. He seemed...odd there in the end. Like a zealot with nothing to loose. A roar from behind grabs her attention. Owlbear. She completely forgot it was here.
Cassandra steps forward and puts a hand in front of Kavalina to stop her from attacking. "Move get out of its way. Let it see the exit. Vance get out of the way!" She yells over her shoulder. She then backs a step away and tries to assume a non-threatening posture.
The owlbear roars angrily! It rears up!
Tiger launches himself from the tower and comes racing across the broken rooftop in the middle of the fort, just reaching the edge, clearly about to leap down.
Korinne takes a chance and steps in. A spray of vivid, clashing colors erupts from her hands, and the bear-bird-beast shakes and rumbles, shuddering and trying to clear its head.
Kava takes a swing with her glaive, backing up as she does so to provide room for the others.
She just barely manages to land a blow, due to the stunned state of the creature.
Tiger leaps from the roof and slashes at the creature with both kukri on his way down.
One blade nicks the creature!
Telmarni spins and flies over the owlbear, landing behind it in a flanking position with Cassie. Unfortunately this doesn't leave her time to engage spell combat.
The beast is stunned and sorely pressed.
Cassandra doesn't like attacking the feral beast but they was no choice here. She was never good at calming beasts. They usually avoided her. And this one was probably caged and treated so bad it would be a menace soon enough. She could at least put this much meat and fur to good use though.
If they could kill it before it killed them.
Cassandra doesn't like attacking the feral beast but they was no choice here. She was never good at calming beasts. They usually avoided her. And this one was probably caged and treated so bad it would be a menace soon enough. She could at least put this much meat and fur to good use though.
[dice=Attack+Favored Enemy+Inspire Courage]1d20+4+2+1
[dice=Damage+Favored Enemy+Inspire Courage]1d4+3+1[dice=Attack+Favored Enemy+Inspire Courage]1d20+4+2+1
[dice=Damage+Favored Enemy+Inspire Courage]1d4+3+1If they could kill it before it killed them.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Carinna turns, fresh from bringing the Stag Lord down, and as the beast rears up she makes a fearless floor lunge. If she misses, or if her blade bounces off the hide, the beast will come down on top of her, enveloping her in its claws while crushing her under its bulk. Her curving blade arcs up just under the plate of the sternum - it has wings, does it have the sternal plate of a bird? - nevertheless, the strike pierces deep into the abdomen, tearing through flesh and organs; as she pulls the blade away blood spurts out from a severed artery. The creature flails from side to side, and Carinna rolls away as the beast tries to get its wits about it after the stunning spell, but its accumulated wounds are too much, and finally it slumps down, breathing heavily and giving one last angry squawk before becoming completely still.
Tiger wipes off his kukri and sheathes them, while Hatch rushes up saying, "Did we make it? Is everyone all right?" Vance leads the captured leather-wearing black-haired bandit back inside on a truss after roping him up, and Kava assembles the group for a burst of her healing powers.
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Carinna cleans her blade on the owlbear's fur before sheathing it. She then passes her hand around her face and hair, trying to remove a bit of the Stag Lord's and the bear's blood from her. When all the enemies are finally dealt with, she lets herself relax for a bit and, with the adrenaline fading, she notices how she is exhausted! Luckily, with Kavalina's healing power, she regains a bit of her energy.
"Yes, we did it... even if I believed we'd be able to do it, I confess that I was really worried." Turning to Tiger, with a smile in her face, she could not hold herself. "I told you we were capable of beating your ex-boss!"
Taking a cue from Korinne's question, Carinna looks around just to count the bodies. "I believe we should take a look on who is still alive. Some of them need not to die today, unless they choose to do so..."
Tiger nods and says, "As good as your word. You've won my allegiance. All right, what are you going to do next?"
The other bandit that was with him - Jex the Snitch - says, "So... so... it's over, right? I mean, you killed the boss, you killed his lieutenants, now the rest of us just... um... um..." and trails off. He gulps noticeably - he must be thinking about his chances of avoiding a hangman's noose.
Kava checks on the defeated and says, "We can save a few of these men - the commander here, the wanted man, this fellow with the red hair."
True to his moniker, Jex says, "That one - the commander - he's Akiros, he joined us a few months ago and quickly moved into a lead role. He says he was wanted but didn't elaborate too much on his past, really skilled fighter, obviously some kind of training. Um, that fellow you said was wanted is Falgrim, he was a mercenary, decided to join us for the easy pickings. The red-haired one is Topper Red, he's just one of the guys, kind of funny, likes making up dirty limericks."
As Vance pushes the black-haired man in, Jex says, "That's Dovan - another lieutenant. Used to be second-in-command, until Akiros showed up. He's a mean one, really crafty too." Dovan, for his part, seems too out of it from his wounds to say anything about Jex's commentary.
It is nearly a full half minute after the fighting is over before Cassandra is herself. So much emotional turmoil had shaken her control. Being one quarter were-wolf had its disadvantages. She wanted to tear into the wounded and dying owlbear or any of the other not quite dead bandits. Even the wound on Carinna smelled delightful. But all she does is stand there, flexing her hands and taking deep breaths to slow her pulse. Slow the adrenaline. Slow the feral blood. Anyone that gets too close out of concern feels more than hears a deep, rumbling growl. Long dormant instinct screams at them to stay away. With a deep sigh, all signs of the change are gone.
"That was a rough one," she says, still a little deeper than normal. "I think I should avoid doing that again today." She kneels next to the Owlbear and says a silent prayer to Erastil, thanking him for the bounty that would be put to use and apologizing for not being good enough to avoid it. "You guys mind taking care of things? This is best done now before it starts to spoil," she says, indicating the fallen creature. She grabs a paw and turns to Tiger and Jex. "Can you guys help? It'll start to stink soon."
With help (cause without this would be an impossible task) she drags the carcass out of the fort and starts skinning and preparing.
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To answer Tiger, Carinna looked at him, hardening her expression. "First, we'll have to disarm all the survivors, lock them, and then interview each one of them... and this includes you... We need no know why you've joined the Stag Lord, about your character, and if it will be safe for you to be freed, either to join us, or leave the region... you listened and helped us and of course we'll take that in consideration, but we must be consistent in our trials."
So, we've got the smelly brothers, who should still be unconscious and tied by that tree near the river, Auchs on the secret tunnel, Tiger and Jex who can remain unbounded for now, the three unconscious ones, and Donovan... right, lets get them and use the owlbear's cage...
With this, Carinna instructs Hatch to take two horses and go fetch the unconscious bandits by the river, while she asks Telmarni's help to fetch the big Auchs. Then she takes all the three unconscious man and Donovan to the jail as well, taking care to confiscate all their gear before doing so.
Korinne carefully looks around and discovers several things of interest - Hatch comes along to help out.
• There's a storage area cordoned off with hides, containing three unlocked crates with 10 longbows, 260 arrows, 5 short swords, 5 spears, four 50-foot lengths of hemp rope, a set of chisels, 2 hammers, 3 tins of iron nails, and 4 suits of leather armor. None of them seem very exceptional.
• In the room that the Stag Lord came out of, there are a pair of chests containing bedding and other miscellaneous items, including a bolt of burlap cloth, old clothing, an iron ring, and three crudely stitched leather masks. In a third chest is 141 gp, a polished azurite crystal, a carnelian, a piece of hematite, a shard of obsidian, a red garnet, a pewter belt buckle depicting a pair of entwined succubi, and a silver charm bracelet.
• A more regular room looks like it's been converted to a combination of storage and housing, with a cot in it amongst some boxes holding dry goods like grain and smoked meat. There's also some polish oil and a whetstone near the cot, and a small journal, that seems to tell the tale of a disgraced paladin who fell from grace after he became entwined in a love triangle and wound up killing his lover and her husband, then fleeing from Taldor and eventually winding up in this rabble. He seems to be a tormented man filled with remorse but barely able to control his own rage and self-loathing.
• Atop the roof are several small toy figures of knights and dragons.
• In the owlbear pen are several old bones. It looks like this was where the eponymous "bear pit" was - they may have actually had the owlbear fight a brown bear at one point.
The rest of the team ties up the surviving bandits and strips the gear from them, and finds:
• The Stag Lord's strange stag helm seems to be magical. He also has a magical bow (composite, with a fairly serious pull), a pair of potions, and a magical amulet. His leather cloak and pants seem to be enchanted as well - serving like enchanted leather armor, in spite of the lack of a shirt.
• The subcommander (Akiros)'s longsword is enchanted, and he has three magical arrows, two potions, a silver holy symbol of Erastil, a Stag Head amulet, and a very well made suit of chainmail as well as a normal heavy shield, a longbow, and some mundane arrows.
• The black-haired man (Dovan) has a magicked rapier and a pair of turquoise earrings, a Stag Head amulet, and a small purse of coin - 28 gp, 2 pp.
• The other bandits have the usual gear: leather armor, short swords, long bows, nothing special.
• The big slow-witted man (Auchs) has a club and three magic potions. He also has a Stag Head amulet.
• Tiger has his own pair of kukri and his studded leather armor.
If Tiger says yes to aiding she sends a few probing question now that they were friends...maybe. "So is Tiger your real name? I think I can guess how you got here but I wouldn't mind hearing the story."
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Carinna is indeed impressed by the amount of loot the Stag Lord and his band had been able to hold. Unfortunately she was too tense to properly check them, concentrating on the task ahead of her. On her lap, she hold her sword, knowing that soon enough it would be once more bathed in blood for those deemed to be too dangerous to be kept alive. It was a necessary step, but a grievous one.
Korinne finally draws her attention when she handles her the old journal. Carinna opens it but the decides not to read. "If you have already read it, Kor, we already know if he'll tell the truth... if he does so, I think I don't need to know of his secrets."
Tiger says to Cassandra, "My real name? Yeah, I suppose you'd wanna know. Ralan. I'm called Ralan. Story's the same as any other... lived in a little farm village herding sheep and whatnot, up until I discovered how I was different. People got scared, I had to leave in a hurry. I was accused of all kinds of things that I didn't do. Is it irony if I never actually killed anyone - like I was accused of - until I had to take up the life of a bandit? I guess it's close enough for me," he says with a shrug. "It's not as if I enjoyed the life of a bandit. It was just better than living alone in a cave somewhere, slowly turning more and more into an animal."
Jex the Snitch says, "Tell her about..." Tiger fixes Jex with the kind of stare that a cat uses to freeze its prey with fear, then says, "Under the area by the roasting pit, there's a big piece of wood up against the wall. Move it and there's a stairway under there, goes down to an old cellar or basement. There's... uh... not sure how to describe him. Some creepy old guy lives down there. The Stag Lord made sure people went down and brought him food and water, crazy old man just lives in the dark."
Tiger adds, "The Stag Lord kept a lot of the best stuff for himself, obviously he had some dream of bringing together an army and making himself a bandit king. For the most part, ehhh, the original owners are in no condition to ask for it back."
To Korinne's comment Tiger says, "The lieutenant there, Akiros, he has some military training. Not just your run-of-the-mill mercenary soldier. Like, individual fighting, tactics, formations, small group combat. Goes wild in a fight, but he seems to just use that to be a vanguard, make a wedge and break into enemy ranks while everyone else follows up from behind. He's... it's a little hard to explain, it's like there are two sides to him. Not two different people in his head, just he can be really moody and angry, but when he's not, he's a solid leader. Knows what he's doing, commanding, confident, people just follow him. The Stag Lord promoted him, even put him over Dovan - the black-haired one - something that Dovan sure didn't like, I'll tell you. But Dovan was a bit of a slippery eel, just in his place because the Stag Lord needed someone sneaky to keep the men in line. Akiros is... different. The Stag Lord thought he'd be a bandit king based on his strength of arm, but he was nothing more than a scarred drunk, in the end. Akiros... that's a man who really could be a king. But a king with a dark heart, if things went wrong."
-Ralan-
"Well it's nice to meet you Ralan," Cassandra says with sincerity. As he spoke, she continued to prepare the owlbear. Smelly and bloody work but also monotonous at this point. A good way to focus herself. She still gave him her complete attention. "Yeah. I've heard many similar stories. But that doesn't make it any less important. And no, its not ironic. It's sad. Tell someone they're a monster long enough and they are bound to believe it. To be honest though, I actually never went through all that." She stops for a moment and looks away, almost ashamed. She couldn't empathize with him or many of the older villagers from her home. It made her appreciate it that much more and fueled her determination to make a home like that here. But she was also unsure how to proceed. She didn't know what he needed to hear.
"My home. Its a long way from here but, it was made by people like you. People that others would call a monster at first glance." She looks up from her work and stares directly into his eyes. "If no one has said it in a while I'll be the first. You are neither a monster or an animal. You are you." She holds the look for a while to show that she was serious and sincere. When her powers first manifested, they frightened her. But those words from her father had been like a mantra that helped her through the transition. Maybe they would help him.
"I don't think I'll feel comfortable calling you Tiger anymore. And I don't think anyone else should either. That's not your name nor all there is to you."
-Creepy Old Man-
After skinning the owlbear and leaving the skin to dry, Cassandra walks back into the fort feeling much more herself. She listens to Ralan's news of another person caged in the basement and his account of Akiros. "So the Staglord...had this old man caged in the basement?" Cassandra says unsure of how to take that news. "Is he not right in the head?"
-Akiros-
"Depends on how angry he got. Did he hurt anyone badly? Remember Laric. He was always angry too. But Laric didn't try anything because we were stronger."
Ralan (Tiger) says, "I don't know what the deal was with the old man in the basement. He seems to be fine with staying down there. He's not tied up or anything. The Stag Lord just... let him." He shrugs. "Yeah, everyone thought it was creepy, but nobody was going to push the issue." He moves around to help skin the monstrous corpse. "Ugh. I hear these things taste really gamey. Not sure if it's true. Does it taste like bear, or like owl?"
Hatch says in the meantime, "You gave me and Vance a chance, and that worked out. Maybe... we should talk to this guy, Akiros, and give him a chance too."
"Well we did talk to them one on one last time. Worked for four of them. And another this time," she says looking at Ralan. "Maybe we can convince a few more this time." She looks at the others for confirmation. "But we should probably see to the old man in the cellar first."
Cassandra finds the cellar door Ralan mentioned and decides to take a torch down instead of shifting. Felt like it might be too soon yet. In the other hand is handax though. Just in case. "Hello."
The group re-assembles after finishing scouting the area and heads down into the cellar underneath the cooking area. Hatch and Vance stay behind to keep an eye on the bandits in the bear cage - making sure they don't get out via secret passage or hidden contrivance.
Cassie's torch casts flickering light on the irregular, slightly damp walls.
This room feels miserably damp, and greasy swaths of mold cake the carved stone walls and floor. The ceiling fifteen feet overhead is thick with cobwebs. Three archways in the walls open into other rooms, all of which are filled with mounds of crates, furs, sacks, weapons, and other obviously stolen loot.
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Carinna shrugs at Korinne's suggestion. "I guess we'll need to search this place completely so there is no wrong way, right?"
With a shrug, Carinna draws her sword, just in case, and awaits for Cassandra to light the way ahead of them. The loot around them was indeed astonishing. That man could have done so much with this... instead he chose to dump it in the dark, probably planning to keep everything for himself.
Cassandra shrugs. Left was as good as right at this point. But there was supposed to be someone down here so she gives him one more time to respond. "Hello." She listens for a response. If none comes back she heads left.
Telmarni says, "I don't like this. It feels so... enclosed." She stretches her wings slightly.
As you start to explore the rooms, what looks like an angry wolverine comes out of the rock wall and hisses in your direction! It appears to be standing on the ceiling!