Blood pours from my side into the garden. There's no pain, not like when Gaedren destroyed and discarded me, but there is a torrent of blood, falling onto the bed of parched flowers. The torrent slows to a rivulet, then to a trickle and then stops completely.
Kishta opens her eyes to the sight of a dwarf bending over her, his hands glowing with holy light. "Gustag?" she asks. "Thank you."
She turns her gaze on Gaedren Lamm, who is beset by her companions.
"Clean our blood? This blood cannot be washed away. It heralds the end, the end of your evil reign."
"You dirty, cheating scum." He taunts towards Lamm before looking at the wound
Dreqar gives a look of concern with the bolt stuck into his arm, coupled with the pain from before, he grits his teeth and moves towards Gustag.
"Not to be a bother but could someone pull this thing out of my arm?"
As Lamm moves back, so Mercy moves forward, the words of her combat teachers at the church echoing, focussing her for the task at hand, keeping the blood-rage of her ancestors in check;
Swordplay is like a dance Mercy, always played to the same impatient rhythm. What begins in a surge of violent motion is always reduced to the perfectly still...
The half orc moves forward with focus and continues her subduing assault...
:
... but is distracted by Kish's coughing return to the living...
"Kish?"
Veklen snarls and moves forward over Raseri, concentrating on his sword. He swings with all he has at Lamm.
Arianna calls out, "Finish the half-orc before he gets to his feet again!" before training her dread gaze on Lamm.
Will:
Attack Dagger: Miss
Truffles: 28/33 NL: 0 rounds Doom 9/10 rounds
Waydon checks Kishta's wounds, but Gustag makes bandaging them immediately unnecessary, so he instead marches up next to Lamm sword in hand. Dreqar moves back towards the cleric and Arianna, who tries to weaken Lamm's defenses, but the old bastard still has his wits and will if not his body. Mercy tries to get at him, but her swing goes wide as she glances back at Kishta's coughing. Veklen also tries to score a hit, but the old man is proving to have unusually tough skin and seems to only be knocked off balance as he drops his crossbow and draws a dagger to try and slit Mercy's throat. Arianna calls out a warning to kill Truffles, unfortunately, the burly half-orc awakes and stands. He scoops up his sword before taking a step towards the Varisian witch with murder in his eyes.
"Kill all these worms who dare enter my domain!"
"I'll start with the witch, then."
Veklen smiles, baring his tusks at Lamm. Give it up. Veklen swings his sword in a large arc. Then before Lamm can recover from the swing, Veklen motions with his free hand, speaking rhythmically. His hand crackles with electricity, and he lashes out.
Cast Shocking Grasp
Edit:Nice, crit threat, let's see how that goes:
Kishta struggles to pull herself up into a sitting position against the wall, starting up another round of coughing.Once it subsides, she wipes the spittle from her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Still here, Merce. He calls us lambs, and thinks we're his to slaughter, but he's wrong. He can strike us down, for a time, but we will always come back, stronger than before."
Veklen looses his fury on Gaedren, his sword cuts slashes open his throat, but not quite enough to be fatal. The spark of lightning that he holds in his other had finishes off the wicked man.
Wayden watches the blood pour out of Gadren's neck and he feels more a sense of relief than of pleasure. Turning towards the halforc, he charges and puts everything he has into striking him.
Power Attack + charge
Seeing Gaedren go down puts a dark smile on Dreqar's lips, injured still he steps in front of Arianna putting his body inbetween the halforc and her. "Your boss is as good as dead, do you really want to join him? Your kinda outnumbered here." the catfolk taunts.
Veklen stares down at Lamm. I warned you, is all he says.
Mercy stares wide-eyed at the cloven body of Lamm before her...
Is he really dead? So many times I've dreamt of this... but this was so fast... so final...
The half orc bends towards their protagonist's corpse as if to ensure herself he is indeed dead;
:
Arinna glares at the formerly sleeping half-orc, hissing in anger as her eyes settle on the brute.
Arianna: I2
Dreqar: H2
Gustag: H1
Kishta: G1 prone
Mercy: F5
Veklen: C-D 5-6
Waydon: G3
Raseri: E4 prone
Lamm: F6
Truffles: G2
A1, A-B 2-3 are difficult terrain
A-B 4-6 is another room. Door @ B6
Door to the pier @ I1
Truffles meets Arianna's gaze, but it doesn't seem as intimidating from behind Dreqar. His deep basso growl fills the room. Simply put, he is pissed.
Gustag looks about, seeing more of his new companions harmed. He snorts and spits a healthy wad of phlegm onto the floor before closing his eyes to concentrate and focus on his patron's life-bringing essence.
After the wave of energy hits her, Kishta's voice becomes louder and stronger, and her words more stirring.
"This is how tyrants fall. People of courage stand firmly against them. Against such strength, not even the meanest can prevail!"
Waydon charges the half-orc, the last combatant, his blade slicing deep into Truffles' meaty arm. Dreqar tries to intimidate the brute, but he simply ignores the catfolk magus. Mercy bends to check Gaedren, who seems to be stable, despite the blood seeping onto the floor. Arianna tries to cast a hex on the burly fighter, who just shrugs it off, and turns as she moves away from him and to the back wall behind Mercy.
Truffles follows her, one single thing on his mind, her demise. He ignores the others, intent on making the witch that embarrassed him bleed. The sword comes in from her right and rips cloth and skin as it leaves a long wicked gash in her belly.
"Lie down and bleed, witch. Your friends will join you soon enough."
Truffles Attack:
Damage:
Veklen looks up from Lamm bleeding on the floor as the half-orc moves by. Veklen pulls his sword up and swings it in a tight arc.
Waydon swings when he sees an opening.
Despite crouching oe'r Lamm's prone form, Mercy's instincts kick in as the monstrous half orc passes and she pivots... sweeping her scimitar at the brute...
:
... but it clatters off his rushing form
Three blades bit deep, and blood streams down to the floor as he downs Arianna. Something seems strange though, his voice is fading, and his eyes glass over. He falls to the ground with a crash, his final breath already passed.
Gustag stays his swing as he sees the giant fall. He quickly surveys the room as he rushes to Arianna's side. How's everybody doin'? Most hurt goes first.
Veklen bent over the body of Lamm and began searching him for anything important. Is he still alive? he asks Mercy, I'd hate to miss the chance to torture this sack of hippogriff dung. He grins baring his tusks slightly.
As Gustag starts going over the healing Veklen--still rifling through Lamm's belongings--turns up to Gustag and says, You can skip me. I may have been the largest one here, but I don't think they noticed. Didn't even try to attack me. He shakes his head, muttering under his breath something about fools and bad tactics. Then he jerks his head in the direction of the Ulfen girl, Though if you're goin' with the worst first, you may want to see to your friend there. She doesn't look so good.
Arianna slowly gets to her feet following the vicious attack from the half-orc and the subsequent healing, courtesy of Gustag.
"Thank you, my friend. Now that I'm on my feet again, I can cast a curative spell on whomever may need it." she says looking around.
Almost as if to add weight to Veklen's words, a pitiful moan comes from the battered girl as she tries to get her feet under her.
"A-are my sisters alright?"
AOO:
Damage:
Dreqar swings at the passing half orc desperatly trying to stop his attack on Arianna, but cringes as he can't put any force behind the blade. He watches the others finish the brute off, and turns to Gustag to watch him heal Arianna.
When Gustag heals her he breathes a sigh of relief. "Remind me I owe you two drinks good dwarf." the catfolk sheathes his sword and turns to more pressing bussiness with Lamm.
Gustag hurries over to Raseri, nodding quickly. They're fine, me girl, jus' fine. You don' worry now, jus' let 'ol Gustag look at ya.
He turns to offer Dreqar a wide grin. Ah, but ya' know tha' way to an 'ol dwarf's 'eart. Anytime, friend. Fer now, make sure tha' big bastard doesn't decide ta' stand up after I 'eal everyone up.
Gustag calls upon the power of the unlikely hero once again, healing the wounds of everyone within the room - Raseri and their foes included.
After Veklen finishes searching Lamm, he pulls his sword out again, preparing to use it on the unconscious man. He sticks it to the man's throat and as soon as he feels the energy pass through him from Gustag, he growls out, Move a muscle and you die. I dare you to give me an excuse. He grins coldly. After a moment he adds. I will let you open your eyes though.
Lets search the room everyone. I'll keep an eye on Lamm.
Perception
Hey look over there I see something.
Seeing Veklen and Waydon searching and keeping Lamm down, Dreqar goes over to the bodyguard and searches the corpse.
Perception
"Might as well see what we got here."
Mercy still maintains her crouched posture over Lamm.
She gently steers Veklen’s blade away from the prone miscreant’s throat;
”Mine eyes and blade watch over this one. To end him through anger would be too easy, old Lamm here has too many black debts to honour before justice is served…”
Her tone - polite but firm...
Veklen pulls his sword away reluctantly. But he does put it away.
-A nice looking dagger
-A nice looking hand crossbow
-9 bolts for the hand crossbow
-A ring of keys
-A nice looking Falchion covered in blood.
-A bunch of junk
"And what justice is that, dear Mercy? What debts do I have to repay, I ask you? I simply provide a place for the cast-aways to sleep. It's hardly my fault if they die before their time."
Lamm looks like he's about to resume his smug smile, but Raseri isn't about to let him get that satisfaction.
"LIAR! You stole my sisters from me four years ago! By the Song that rings through the spheres I will make you pay if either of them is hurt."
Pink scars appear where red welts once were, and several of the worse cuts are healed, but it's obvious that the blond warrioress is not nearly completely healed. Looking into her eyes though, it's obvious she would gut Lamm if given cause.
Waydon Cordus strides over to see what is behind the door. He intends to find everything of value within this place before he puts Lamm to the sword. Lamm may have some useful information about items within the room. Seeing that Mercy is intent upon keeping the old man alive makes things a little more difficult as he sees it. Unfortunately for the paladin this is something that has to be done.
Waydon opens the door to a foul-smelling room that seems to be a combination bedroom and study. A wooden bed with a lumpy mattress stands against the east wall, while a round table heaped with dirty plates, bread crusts, stained goblets, fruit rinds, and scuttling cockroaches sits nearby. At the foot of the bed sits a large strongbox, a slightly rusted lock securing its lid. A sagging dresser filled with moth-eaten clothes well past their glory days is in one corner—what appears to be a wooden hatbox surrounded by a small cloud of flies sits atop this dresser.
Meanwhile, Lamm continues to be smug.
"You wound me, my dear. Why would I hurt either of those lovely sisters of yours? My associates, however, might be more inclined, assuming that they still live."
Taking the keys that were removed from Lamm, Waydon will try to open the strongbox with them.
He will also look inside the wooden hatbox.
Dreqar picks ups the Falchion, and then wipes the blood off of it, on the dead half orc. He then turns to Lamm and pats the flat of the large blade in his palm.
"What I want to know Lamm is why you took my Vensi away from me?"
The catfolks ears folded down and his face was a snarl. His ginger tail was fluffed out and swinging in agitation.
He kept starting for another question, but couldn't quite bring himself to ask if it was Lamm himself, or a hired goon, or even a child, forced into it. Though the way his eyes kept darting to Mercy, Kishta, and Veklen and back to Lamm showed his mind was turning wheels.
You owe me the debt of a clear name. You, Veklan pauses with a growl, you will confess to the magistrate before too much longer. I promise that. Veklen bares a few inches of his blade. Then you will face justice.