As Ron leaves his allies behind and closes in on the beast, he slows and becomes more cautious with each step. It wouldn't do to have the beast notice him.
3rd rank? I sigh as I regain my footing. So much for attacking from the rear. I bring my sword against my nearest target, hoping to cut down as many as I can before the troops behind me notice and flank me.
I attack safe and smart, passing up good strikes in order to stay defensive.
Belym
Tom
Ron
Conwall
Belym gestures, and the serpent attempts to tighten its hold on the demon. She tries to impale it again, and calls out a warning to Roshan: " Watch out! There's a powerful spell affecting the center one in front!"
Belym
the serpent throws aside the caster it was grappling, and sinks it's teeth into another caster. the 4 who remain concentrate their energy into a stream of sanguine-purple energy. the casters turn on you as the stream dies, energy crackling between them. what do you do?
Conwall
your first strike lands true, the blow shredding the demon's armour, your second dives under the next demons arm, tearing flesh and bone aside until it pierces the abomination's heart. your third blow drags across the final demon's stomach, before striking down from above, cutting it from collar to solar plexus. as the final blow lands, the cascade of energy from the back row begins, upon you before you can even consider getting away, what do you do?
Roshan & Tom
the forces collide, first he spears, and then the ranks of sword and axemen. in a brief but violent conflict, you force them back, away from those still rallying
however, your victory is sort lived, as the back row unleashes a torrent of magical energy, soaring right at you, no time to get out of the way what do you do?
Ron
The beast uncoils itself as it prepares to enter the fray, and as it moves, you catch tantalizing glimpses of the portal, and the island turned to gemstone beneath it. you have mere moments to come up with a plan, what do you do?
Tom grabs the demon in front of him by the chest of its armor, lifting the entire creature into the air before pushing the creature backwards a few feet in front of the magical burst.
Only one real choice here.
Ron slowly slips into the water and moves to the side out of the beast's path. He is careful not to disturb the surface of the water, hoping to avoid attention as it closes on his allies.
As the beast's head passes Ron's position, the battlemaster begins pushing through the water towards the gemstone island.
Roshan shoulders her shield and presses forward, the air over the risen cairn stones filling with a cinimon-scented haze.
Ron
Belym
No chance to move, huh? Guess I'll have to try something else. I grit my teeth and prepare for the hit.
Seeing Conwall caught in the center of the spell, Belym flicks her wrist and sends the earthen otter dashing through the demons, trying to grab the elf and move him out of the way.
With a moment of concentration, she allows the other leash to fall away, and begins creating a cascade of ice, sending it down the walkway into the rows of casters.
Once the beast is past, Ron swims quickly for the gemstone island. When he gets near, he pauses for a moment to survey the island.
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Conwall
the blast strikes hard on you, damn your elven sensitivity to magic, however, before the blast can fully impact, Belym's otter grabs onto you. you instinctively know that it will take you somewhere safe
Belym
Your otter reaches Conwall, before blinking out of existence, and reappearing . then the ice wells up within you, sending shivers down your spine. The casters stumble and fall as frost and coats the Marsh-way, and blizzard-winds whirl around them. what do you do?
Roshan
The energy... does not harm you, not like the others, whose skin is burnt, and who are thrown around by the force of the magic. but you feel none of those effects. a soldier does, however, fly into you, knocking you prone as he impacts. Blast abates, and your phalynx is broken and scattered, what do you do?
Tom
the demon's armour seems to protect it from the blast's effects, or perhaps it is simply immune to the magic altogether. Either way, like the prophet who parted the tide, the magic spreads around you. you are still standing as it abates, and the enemy phalynx moves in. what do you do?
Ron
Looking over the island, it is beautiful. perhaps 60 meters across, with the portal near, but not quite at the centre of it. A little behind the portal is a chair, turned to opal, with a jet figure, vaguely humanoid, within it. the majority of the front of the island is taken up by a camp, apparently destroyed or assaulted before it was turned to gemstone (primarily sapphire and Ruby), also littered with damaged jet figures. the portal itself is a swirling purple vortex which extends from a raised crystal base, to the lowest branches of a dead, mineralized tree.
You notice the portal itself is moving erratically. something is happening with it, and knowing your luck, it is not a good something.
The crystallization of the island stops at the edge, just at the ring of warding runes begins. the magic of those is containing the power of the portal.
The jet figure in the chair is not so inert as he first appeared, you see him shift slightly as you sweep you vision away.
Tom sees an opening an shoulders through the break in the demon formation, looking for the source of the spells assaulting them from safely behind the melee.
Tom sees an opening an shoulders through the break in the demon formation, looking for the source of the spells assaulting them from safely behind the melee.
[dice=Defy Danger(DEX)]2d6
Belym traces the outline of a boulder into the air, and launches it at one of the casters at her feet.
As Tom darts through the crowd, the demons fill the gap preventing any access to his ally forces. Ahead of him on the marsh-way isn't any magic caster, there's just a large stretch of nothing. Once past the front lines the marsh-way is completely empty.
As Tom darts through the crowd, the demons fill the gap preventing any access to his ally forces. Ahead of him on the marsh-way isn't any magic caster, there's just a large stretch of nothing. Once past the front lines the marsh-way is completely empty.
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Thrusting her khanda in the air, Roshan shouts a rallying cry to assemble her scattered forces.
Crimson flames burst from Roshan's extended blade, and the rising haze resolves into a massive, bent figure, weighed down in chains. His skin bares the grey-green palor of death, and he carries a crooked staff in one hand and a scourge of twisted chains in the other.
The word comes like a peel of thunder.
I grit my teeth as the spill hits, hard and let myself get whisked behind some heavy stones behind the final row of demons. Hopefully they think the blast vaporized me.
Keeping low, I try to scout around the battlefield, getting a feel for what my next move should be.
Flashback:
Conwall, have ye done much mass-scale combat? It ain't like taking down a large demon. Ye must focus primarily on yer surroundings. Yer a better fighter than any individual ye will face. The danger is the blade to the back that ye didn't see coming. Focus on staying alive.
End Flashback:
What is useful or valuable to me?
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Belym
the casters are stone dead, nothing could have survived the barrage you subjected them to However, you have also, in the process, not only destroyed the Marshway under them, but also the marsh-bed under that, rendering it a sinkhole.you, Ron, and Maybe Conwall are cut off from Roshan and Tom. meanwhile, that giant Bone serpent is approaching down the marshway, 45 seconds to impact, what do you do?
Conwall
you look up from your new perch, and see te behemoth passing by you. Bless Pelor, you were not seen, and more importantly, you saw it. beneath a large slab of bone, encicled by roots and ribs, you see a large orb, the size of your head or maybe a tad larger, made of divine ore, with shards of astral ruby arranged in geometric patters across it's surface. what do you do?
Roshan
the figure, an image of the great god Hebron sends fear through the demons, who flee, first in an orderly retreat, which quickly degenerates into blind panic. Two fall into Belym's new sinkhole before the rest stop, and make a nervous stand, still unable to see. meanwhile, Tom seems to have something going on with him. What do you do?
Tom
as you gaze upon this strange Marsh you have found yourself in, strange incongruities make themselves known. the trees are wrong, their leaves are like none you have ever seen, crude and ill-formed. the marsh-way you stand on now is made os smooth stone, and sigils carved in it glow. and the very air feels different, the decay of the marsh is absent. strange whispers echo from in the water, what do you do?
Tom pauses in the alien landscape and searches for some clue that may help him, standing on the stone walkway and not moving.
Conwall
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Roshan is surprised to find the shield sisters falling into rank at her shoulders. Gesturing with her blade, she gave her commands: "Press the assault! Divide their ranks! Put their backs to the wards!"
The phantom image of Hebron takes one heavy step forward and hurls his scourge forward. At the crack of its links, the entire image dissolved again into a thick crimson mist. Through the mist, Roshan's forces advance in a spearhead formation.
I hold my breath and leap onto the beast. I mistime my leap and land considerably higher on its back than I intended. It's going to take some climbing to get down to where I need to be.
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Flashback
And while we be discussin fighting demons. Don't take offense, but ye seem to be a bit ... overzealous.
As the fire begins to die down in the early light of dawn, Ron points to his head. Yer fast, yes. But yer real advantage is up here. Take yer time, watch for openings, and strike.
End Flashback
Ron climbs up onto the island and stops at the circle of warding stones. He bends down to inspect them, and thinks back to long ago conversations with his benders. How can I break this enchantment?
Belym takes a moment to catch her breath, wincing at the pain running up her arms, and the pebbles still embedded in her hands. This... blockage could become a real problem soon. Turning, she gapes as Conwall leaps onto the giant demon's back. Hope that fool elf doesn't get himself killed, she thinks, as she turns and runs towards the oncoming beast. A gesture with one hand brings the otter-elemental alongside the path as she runs, bellowing at the huge demon.
Tom
you examine the world around you, and realize that this is no real place, the runes change as you try to read them, the stone alternates between smooth and rough. this place is the construction of some Mind-twister, A Hocus or Enchantress, or some worse abomination. they (Or it) will be in here with you, stalking you until you escape, or make a mistake. what do you do?
Roshan
You lash out, curved blade slicing through the air, but the demons are on defense, and you are unable to circumvent their guard. meanwhile, your allies battle the bone-serpent, and Sir Bonney is still held captive by some delusion or enchantment, what do you do?
Conwall
you almost jump early, but the voice of Ron chides you, and you wait a moment. you see a spot, and one leap, with almost avian grace, and you are there, on a large bone plate. a few paces away is a point where two bone-plates meet, under which is an easy (Easy being a decidedly relative term) passage to the orb.
Ron
You land on the answer, but not with the Benders staring at the circle, you remember back when you were engaged to Natria. you had joined a crew defending the priests as the re-applied the runes to the Marshway. you got to talking with the bishop about it during lunch. he had explained that the runes worked by negating the magic that animated the undead, making it dangerous and painful for them to cross the runes. actually, these runes were often used in siegeing wizard towers, or cult hideouts. ever the strategist, you had asked if they could be weaponized, used to negate enchantments already in effect. he told you that it could, but only if you had a massive amount of energy behind them. what do yu do?
Belym
You run along the marshway, toward Conwall and the Bone Serpent. the serpent is slowing down, and starting to rise up like a cobra, what do you do?
This magic preys on belief of its existence. The illusion cannot even keep internal consistency already, Tom thinks as he stands and calms himself. He will show no fear or interest in these phantasms and will steel his mind against any sort of probing these types rely on, They will reveal themselves before I break.
Tom's hands tightens around his saber.
Tom was wrong. This is not an illusion. The material world is becoming impossible to perceive as Einora herself is attempting to remove this section of the walkway and bring it into a different reality entirely, sealing the threat against her outside reality.
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I give a mental nod to "head Ron," the friendly voice that reminds me of the stuff that real Ron teaches me during the boring not fighting times and crawl through the gap between the bone plates. It's time to shred some behemoth.
My smashing is quick and doesn't harm anything I care too much about...but it is loud as all get out, and the bone dragon is definitely going to notice I'm there before I expose the crystal.
Tom
Your determination is strong and true, but the world around you seems to warp, and lash out to spite you, becoming more real, more harsh too. you spot a figure in the mist, coming toward you, large knife in hand, and below and beside you, the water stirs slightly. what do you do?
I should try some of the fancy book learnin' one day, Tom grumbles cursing his lack of a traditional magical education, By Iisac's grace, nothing will break my will. His divine warmth flows through me!
Waving his sword in front of him in a flourish, Tom moves his back foot back on the walkway. He holds his sword over his head the tip pointed towards the figure, ready for a fight. The wave of energy that burst from him causes the pseudo-real place he stands to quiver and Tom briefly glimpses reality like an after image.
" The stone is my strength; I shall not waver. Hadouna, guide my aim!" Belym calls, as she launches a boulder at the serpentine figure's eyes.
Tom
the figure moves forward, gliding through the fog, knife brandished he comes into view, wearing the robes of the cult, and the knife is clearly an enlarged version of the daggers. meanwhile, behind you, you hear ragged breathing, and a voice calls weakly out to you Please, Help what do you do?
Belym
bone dust and shards fall to the ground from the beasts face, and your boulder tears a gash in it. the creature seems to be unaffected, disfigurement aside. it rears up, and then lashes forward toward you. what do you do?
Conwall
You tear the plate aside, and slide in, finding yourself in a shifting, segmented corridor of bone and vines. ahead, perhaps 40 meters, is the orb. almost the moment your feet are on solid... substance, the vines start reaching toward you, barbs bared. what do you do?
" That's right, you sad little lizard. Come here!" Belym hisses at the colossus. At the last moment, she flicks her wrist, and the elemental dashes into the causeway, grabs the dwarf...
And vanishes, appearing atop the demon's head. Belym tries to jab her dagger into a crevice in the bones, to use as a handhold.
Roshan is able to push through the combat to Tom, whom she gives a quick visual inspection before attempting to bat the blade from his hands with her shield.
Around them, their diminished forces hold the lines of demons: rallied phalanx against their fearful ranks. The tactics of the militiamen make up for their lesser numbers, but not significantly.
How can I help what isn't there? Tom says preparing for an attack.
Roshan
You know of the type of spell Tom has fallen under, a favorite of heretics and demons, ensnaring the minds of the pure, leaving their bodies vulnerable. the source of the enchantment will be nearby, it is not a long-ranged enchantment. You secure the Priests weapons, what do you do?
Tom
The cultist closes, his knife bearing down on you, meanwhile the voice behind you weakly cries out They're stonger in here what do you do?
Belym
you stand atop the bone-serpent as it raises up from its strike, confused for several seconds. below you, the soldiers of ghostmoor and the legion of hell clash, while Roshan kneels next to Tom, who seems to be unconscious. Conwall is no doubt battling the beast from within, what do you do?