"Get off me ya damn buzzard!"
Sidestepping to be beside Xanaphia, Sarge draws his falchion lightning fast, slashing at the feathered fiend in front of the sorceress.
"Ya! Hey-oh! Get off her, I'm the big juicy morsel here. Ha! Get behind me, lass!"
He tries to get the vultures' attention off of her.
Vardan will rush in to protect Xanaphia, bringing his lance in line with the strange bird.
for
Seeing Xanaphia's attacker taken care of, Iolana continues her dance as she moves within reach of her whip to the thing that attacked Sarge and begins whipping it around the head and wings in attempt to frighten it.
In more pain than she had ever been before, Xanaphia backs up behind Vardan and Jackram hoping the can keep another vulture fiend from attacking her.
Having reached a relatively secure position she one more tried to put one of the evil things to sleep, selecting the one in front of the sergeant as it also seems to pose the greatest threat to her (DC16)
Ooops meant to target a different one and obviously failed my comprehension of the situation
Stumbling back from Jackram's blow, the vulture is stuck with a killing stroke as Varden charges across its axis atop Thorne.
The vulture to Sarges immediate right slumps over asleep from Xanaphia's spell.
Steave and Kyra are up.
V2 38/38 Shaken?
V3 DEAD
V4 38/38 Asleep(Helpless) 3 mins
Kyra takes the vulture's retaliatory attack with a pained grunt, shoving the damned bird off of her as she hears the rest of her group in combat as well, whipping around to assess the situation. Xanaphia's condition catches her eye, and she decides she's most in need of healing.
Seeing no other alternative, she presents her holy symbol to the sky, and a burst of healing energy bursts forth, centered from the cleric.
[ooc] Everyone heals 7 HP, including the vultures, unfortunately.[/dice]
"Xanaphia, please hang on! I'm on my way!" she yells, taking a five-foot step to position herself opposite of Steave, allowing the vulture to be flanked.
Steave grimaces at the creatures attack. He flanks with Kyra and delays until after she channels her healing energy. He sweeps his foot trying to trip the creature and counter-attacks with shield and fist.
+4 if tripped prone
+4 if tripped prone
The gross bird doesn't give way to Steave's kick attempt. It does get bashed with his shield however and the metallic clang followed by the a "SQUAAWCK!" would be humorous if the whole thing wasn't terrible and disgusting. He follows it up with a swift strike.
Kyra's channel heals everyone.
The vulture continues its attempt to devour Kyra, snapping at her back.
Ruffled by the shield strike and punches from the crusader, the vulture lunges at Steave's neck.
Aleister's eagles appear.
Aleister, Varden, and Sarge are up.
V2 23/38 Shaken
V3 DEAD
V4 38/38 Asleep(Helpless) 3 mins
Sarge jumps over the sleeping vulture and moves up to stand beside Steave, attacking with all his might.
-Posted with Wayfinder
As the Birds arrive and begin their assault Aleister protects himself with another spell.
Seeing that her fellows seem to have the fight under control, Xanaphia decides to avoid casting any more powerful spells. She casts Ray of Frost at the nearest active vulture
assumes penalty for target in melee vs touch AC
With a vicious strike followed by the tearing claws of eagles, the vulture in front of Steave is felled by Jakram and Aleister. A beam from Xanaphia shoots wide. Aleister's eagles continue their assault on the vulture that is still conscious
__V1
____KA
______
____JHSR
VA______
________
______V4
__XH
____IT__AS
V1 10/38
V2 DEAD
V3 DEAD
V4 38/38 Helpless(sleeping 2 mins 18 secs)
Varden then group one init
Steave grits his teeth when the creature slashes him. Then, he smiles when it goes down. "Thanks," he says to his companions.
Then, he puts his shoulder down and charges the last creature standing.
The vulture is crushed beneath Steave's charging blow.
Only the sleeping one left.
Vardan directs Thorne to approach the sleeping eagle and draws his Lucerne Hammer to crush its skull before it wakes.
The vulture slips from sleep into death, feeling nothing as the Halfling crushes its head with a hammer.
The group hiding by the down column approaches. "Well done." Anevia says sincerely.
"Halfway decent body guarding." Hogrum mutters.
"Thank you Anevia," Iolana says as she drops Anevia a curtsy at her compliment before giving Hogrum an annoyed look at his half hearted response, "I will take that as high praise from you Hogrum."
She then plucks a few of the longer feathers from the hideous birds, "These might be useful as a pen or something someday."
"I am just glad those things are dead, and not animating as zombies or something. Those things were really unpleasant. What else are we going to run into here.
Lets keep moving and hope we can find some hope in this mess"
She carefully keeps away from the bodies of the horrible things
Aleister sends his birds into the air before they vanish hoping they can spot anymore creatures in the groups path.
Sarge wipes his blade off and sticks it into his sheath, looking around for any danger as he takes point.
Vardan rides back and retrieves his lance, wiping it on the feathers before resetting it in the slot on Thorne's saddle.
He says, "Did we figure out if those were just opportunists, or part of all of this?"
Seeing no threats in the immediate vicinity, the group presses on getting close now to the Blackwing.
From what you could tell as the birds, while gross, did not smell of sulfur nor did they seem insusceptible to your weapons, that they were probably just normal giant vultures driven to a frenzy by the gorging and frenzy around them.
"Demons got a different feel to 'em, yeah. Those were just nasty old buzzards, same as get attracted to every battlefield. Kind of a punch in the gut to have Kenabres become a battlefield, though. I wonder if Nerosyan got hit too?"
Finishing the trek through the treacherous rubble strewn streets before Blackwing Library you reach your destination.
The grand library in ruins, unlike many of the surrounding structures and outbuildings, as some malicious will singled out this building. You know from Aravashniel that it is due to the secret headquarters of the Riftwardens being hidden here. As you approach the door is bashed in and hangs slightly ajar.
Vardan looks at everyone, then back toward the Riftwarden, silently seeking confirmation that these are, in fact, the people who should be here.
Steave looks grim and whispers to the group, "On three, we take down that crusader and tieflings. Ready?"
When everyone's ready, he nods and holds up three fingers. Then, he counts down removing his fingers.
Steave commands.
"Uh... who the hells are they?"
Iolana seeing what she thinks is a soon to be book burning moves in and attempts to trip the nearest enemy with her whip. "I won't let you destroy the knowledge contained in here!" she cries as her whip snaps out to loop around her targets ankles.
Xanaphia is forced to agree this does not look good and casts a sleep spell targeted on the two Tieflings, figuring the armoured figure is more likely to be able to resist.
Kyra follows closely behind Sarge, sighing in relief as they finally reach their destination, thankfully free of any more attackers along the way. Blackwing stood before them, and a brief respite awaited...At least, that's what she thought before entering. She's treated to a male's voice shouting out orders to a librarian, seemingly being forced to stack books around her comrades.
"What are you...what is he doing to her? He looks like a crusader, but no crusader of Kenabres would do such a thing!" she assures the party, shocked at the scene laid before her.
"You are no crusader! You force others to do your bidding, you cowardly shell of a man!" she exclaims, before focusing on her holy symbol.
"Please, Iomedae, grant us the strength needed to defeat this foe would would make a mockery of the faith..."
Previous to the charge, peeking through the door. Neither Jakram nor Iolana recognize the tiefling or their blood covered crusader leader. Leaning in close Aravashniel whispers "I recognize the voice of the girl, Fenna a librarian here, all those in robes like hers are the staff that help the riftwardens."
As the door bursts open and Steave shouts his command, the two tieflings drop to the ground in a deep slumber. Confused and startled by the sudden turn of events, the blood crazed crusader glances about for a moment and then throws his weapon down. "Well I'm unarmed now so don't kill me." he states.
He seems to be shifting in his boots eye the corners of the room, looking for any means of escape. He is of average height with a brown hair and beard. he carries a shield with a sword and sunburst on it.
Moving cautiously to stand about 10 to 15 feet from the traitorous coward, Iolana keeps her whip at the ready and watches for any sign of him trying to flee. In an angry voice, [b]"Get down on the ground and behave yourself."[/b
"All right lady, gods." he kneels placing both hands on the floor.
"You should just let me go, I was only trying to save these poor folk from these tiefling bastards looting and pillaging"
Vardan eyes the man carefully, and as he glances around the room, Vardan frowns. This still doesn't look right..., he thinks, keeping his grip on his lance and scanning for anyone else that might jump out.
Steave moves into the room and says, "Sergeant, please bind that tiefling." He starts to bind the other sleeping tiefling. Over his shoulder, he calls to the crusader on the ground, "Tell us who you are and your unit."
Varden taking in everyone's feelings sees that the once captive librarians have relaxed almost completely despite their ordeal now that you all have the situation in hand. They all thank you and cling to Aravashniel as he is the last Riftwarden and they feel much safer with a Warden around.
The librarians were in a circle of books bound save Fenna, only a fool wouldn't see that some sort of fiery ritual was about to take place here.
The crusader replies "The name is Chaleb, and I'm a crusader, separated from my unit, my damn horse died in the attack, I was saving these poor sods from the tiefling looters!" he protests.
"That's a lie!" Fenna speaks up. "The tieflings are working for you and you said you would burn us all to attract one of "their" attentions. On on you went about choosing the winning side. Who's winning now you traitorous murdering scum!" she spits feebly at him.
Sarge pulls out a rope and hogties the tiefling, while carefully listening to Chaleb and Fenna, trying to weigh who's lying and who's telling the truth.
"Sure you were, so why were you just standing there watching in plain view instead of protecting them when we looked in the door?"
Xanaphia leaves interrogating the Crusader to those more experienced than her. Instead she moves to untie the bound librarians, she rather suspects Chaleb is on the wrong side.
But really they both sound so plausible, perhaps this is just some sort of misunderstanding
Steave ensures the "crusader" and tieflings are well tied . He searches their pockets for any information or useful items. "Do they carry anything magical?" he asks the group.
Steave suggests that the blind elf sit down with the librarians to find out what happened to the city. Does the elf feel secure here in Blackwing?
He finally returns to the prisoner. "The thing is Chaleb we believe the librarians over you. Plus, there are zero working prisons or courts right now. So unless you start getting useful to us, we going to have to sentence you for attempted murder and practicing demonic magic. That's death. I'd prefer not to do that, but you would leave us no choice. " Steave has tremendous problems lying, so the "crusader" should understand the situation he's in.
"I'd believe the poor librarian who you were forcing to stack books over bound librarians over you, Chaleb." she responds, being uncharacteristically cold towards him.
"You dare call yourself a crusader? No crusader of Kenabres would take such cowardly methods for his own gains...The only reason I have not pierced your heart with this blade is because I shall see that you are brought to justice legally. You shall not see the easy way out of this."
Motioning to the others, she finishes up. I say we bind him and 'escort' him to Anevia's wife. From there, he shall be dealt with accordingly. All in agreement?"
The bound man seems eager at this prospect. "That is only just. Escort me to a court in the demon ravaged city. Kill these blackards before they wake, the sniveling cowards, demon tainted abominations are they, not fit for trial before the light."