Nasty Kitty: 24 Damage
The beast roars in fury as Ylva mauls it. Bleeding and enraged it turns on Arradir's faithful hound and tries to return the favor. With lightning speed it clamps down on Ylva's back and tosses her in the air before batting her around like a kitten with a mouse. Ylva yelps in pain as she slams into the floor and adds a new blood stain to the stone.
"You think yourself clever, huntsman," the beast asks Arradir in a dark, rumbling basso growl. "I have killed many like you. one or many, it does not matter. You will all die here and I will feast well tonight."
With a snarled oath Yngvild turns and shoots at the creature, nocking another arrow.
Staying away from the beast's reach, at least for now, Vaenathis' hands move as he directs the conjured greatsword to flank their monstrous foe and strike.
"There is some magic protecting that woman," he calls out, noticing arcane symbols on the beams of the balconies. "At least I think that is what it does..."
Indeed, there is a barrier protecting the woman. It's not perfect, however. Damaging the symbols will weaken the barrier.
The smirking and laughter from the balconies is also short lived as an angry bull suddenly appears and bellows as it charges Lady Arvina. She screams in agony as one of the horns gores her in the belly.
Arradir howls in rage as the beast assaults his companion, and he thrusts forward with his spear, all his weight behind the blow. Words could not capture the pain in his shout, nor the hate in his eyes.
Focusing on the beast, Rodok traces a pattern into the air, and hurls a ball of energy at the beast, before moving forward a bit to be closer to the others and reactivating the calming light his aura.
[ooc]Aura of the Moon, 3 Temp HP for everyone, that refreshes on my turn.
Kresh once again places his hands on the floor, causing the ground under the beast to toss and turn. All the while Kruuh continues to gore their hostess.
Lady Arvina: 40 Damage
Nasty Kitty: 51 Damage
Schandra grabs Galeria and tries to help the young woman find cover.
Kresh's attempt to disturb the beast's footing is meet with failure. Its four legs more than able to handle the shifting ground. From the looks of it, the dwarf really will have to give his best effort to topple the beast. [ooc]You'd need to natural 20 to trip it, Kresh.
Rodok's spell barely misses the beast as it ducks underneath it. Yngvild's arrow fails to pierce its hide, but Vaen and Arradir manage to wound the beast. Though it is obviously badly hurt, it still has plenty of fight left as it turns on Arradir and tries to maul him.
Meanwhile, on the balcony above, Lady Arvina retreats from the enraged bull. Two guards escort her while four move to stab at the beast with spears and the other two use crossbows to attack Kruuh from where they stand. As they stab and shoot at him, Lady Arvina makes it to the door, barely able to walk.
"I may be old, but I still got my place on the front lines!" Kresh yells as he draws his dagger and blinks into a flank with Arradir. "Arradir! Finish it, its badly wounded! Kruuh, get the beast! Get him!" Kresh does his best to harry the beast as he makes the call outs.
"The symbols! Destroy them and the protective magic will fail," Vaenathis calls out to the others, at the same time using his greatsword to attack the beast once again.
Arradir grunts and staggers under the beast's assault, but his anger drives him on. Almost without hearing Kresh's words, the man stabs forward with his spear again.
Yngvild fires a shot at the beast, hoping to put it down quickly.
Looking up at the symbols that had been pointed out to her Schandra gathers the magical fire within her and hurls it at the symbols near where the "lady" had been. She knew that, if she could succeed, she could start getting them all up there and away from the thing attacking them.
"Damned thing, quit moving so MUCH, whatever ya' are!" Rodok curses, throwing another ball of energy at the beast.
Lady Arvina: 40 Damage
Nasty Kitty: 51 Damage
The barrier flashes white then seems to crackle with sparks. A spiderweb of cracks seems to appear from nowhere and the magic thrums discordantly as one of the symbols is destroyed by Schandra's fire.
Sadly, other than Rodok touching the monstrous beast with his deathly cold magics, the party failed to deal any damage to the fiendish feline as it mauls Arradir. The guards have little more luck, all of them failing to do more than irritate Kruuh. The two escorting Lady Arvina guide her down the passage and begin calling for aid.
"I so understand your frustration, friend Rodok," Vaen says with a sigh as his own attack misses once again.
It's cracking, keep it up!"[/b] Yngvild yells turning to look at the beast proceeding to maul her new companions. With a growled curse she drops her bow, drawing both axes in a blur of motion and taking a step toward it, swinging with both blades.
Somehow, Arradir remains standing despite the ferocious claws and teeth of the beast. Perhaps he's a great warrior, or maybe he's simply driven by anger and desperation. Whatever the case, he howls and lunges again.
Kresh moves around the creature towards Arradir, should the creature strike at him he blinks to Arradir's side.
"Fight on my friend! You have victory at your fingertips!" Arradir feels lightly refreshed as Kresh yells his words of inspiration, his wounds close and the scent of fresh dirt and the feeling of bountiful sunlight grace his senses.
All the while Kruuh is fighting his own battle on the balcony.
Schandra was pleased by the breaking of one of the symbols and targeted another one.
Unwilling to temp date with a third failure, Rodok changes tactics, instead petitioning Luck herself for a boon. Focusing on the symbol he's traced above him, he focuses, and the symbol persists.
One of the guards screams as Kruuh launches him over the rail and into the arena below. He falls through the barrier with only a brief flash to note his passage, and lands with a sickening crunch on the ground below.
Elite Guards show up in 3 rounds
Nasty Kitty: 51 Damage
HP: 18/69
AC: 21/13/17
Not a single blow landed on the monstrous feline, though, and its retaliation was fierce and deadly. It mauled Arradir savagely, leaving him bleeding out on the ground. The beast then turned on Yngvild with its scything claws ripping open painful wounds.
The guards continue to harry Kruuh, one managing to leave a gash in his tough hide.
Reeling from the vicious attack, Yngvild tries to retaliate, but to no avail.
Elayna saw just how bad the fight was going and knew she couldn't waste time on the sigils now. The cursed catlike...THING, needed to die and to die now. She decided that it was time to change targets and pulled on her magic once more. She gathered a ball of flames in her hand and then added even more power into it. When the ball had nearly doubled in size she let it fly, screaming across the room at the cat thing. Time to show kitty that it shouldn't have played with fire.
With Arradir down, Vaenathis tries to stay focused on the fight itself as he repositions his sword and moves it to flank the beast with Yngvild before -unsuccessfully- attacking once again.
With the fight beginning to lean towards the favor of their enemies Kresh does what he can to keep a death from occurring. "Not yet friend! We still need you amoung the living!
Kruuh, feeling rather faint, does all he knows to do in a situation like this. Gore everything until it all stops moving. Though he now does so more reservedly, protecting his soft parts.
Arradir blinks and gasps as he returns to consciousness, brought back by Kresh's healing magic. He reaches out and grabs his spear, but there's little else he can do without opening himself to the beast's attacks. Instead, he braces, ready to roll aside and defend himself if it turns to face him.
Rodok continues tracing the golden pattern into the air above him, the energies still buoying the others, even as they struggle against their foes.
Enraged by the mage that dare to fling magic at him, the beast snaps its tail and sends a volley of spikes at Schandra. However, it loses sight of Vaen's mystic blade at a critical moment and pays for its distraction when the blade manages to fell it.
The guards, seeing their comrades fall, retreat, making their ways around the balcony and praying the bull does not follow.
Yngvild races to the balcony, slamming her battleaxe into one of the symbols.
Schandra took aim at another of the symbols, determined to destroy it so they could pursue the b~!*+ of a noble.
Kresh let's loose another healing charge onto Arradir before saying "If anyone can help the wolf you auta, Kruuh and Arradir are gana eat me up."
Kruuh takes off after one of the guards, using his superior movement speed to catch up, goring them if he can.