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"Hey, watch the hand, buddy!" She gives Torrel an offended look when he touches him to activate his power, then grins and points ahead at the collection of undead. "I mean that thing is huge, how could you miss it!"
Now that they've approached near enough to engage the waiting skeletons inside a horrible rift of inky blackness, she readies herself. "I feel like this is a really dumb idea, I just want you to know the vote is four to three that I should not be running into horrible shadows. So if things go bad it's not my fault."
She takes several deep breaths and screams more in fear than anything as she rushes forward. She'll begin to dance as she goes, letting the warrior spirit take control, and the fearful sound becomes a true battlecry by the time one of her blades is whipping in at a skeleton.
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As Seren dances in to the misty black smog, one of the large tendrils reaches out and grabs Seren's legs. Seren is taken by surprised and finds the growth all over her legs and burns her with dark energies. She barely is able to continue wiggling her dance, and is able to get one arm into reach of the nearby skeleton. However, the blade does not cut very well into the skeleton as it has no flesh.
The Skeleton also reaches out to strike Seren in reaction to her presence, but it does not anticipate the tendrils movement and falls short in trying to reach her with the broken Scimitar held it it's hand.
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On the way down the path to the black mass of tendrils, Varuna quaffs a pair of extracts, one causing his arms to elongate in an unhuman way, and the other, giving him a burst of strength in his legs, allowing him to run faster.
He circles around the side of the alter area, trying to stay out of reach of the tendrils of darkness. He pokes his blade at the nearest skeleton, hoping to hit the right bone and cause it to fall apart.
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Hangust looks down to realise his weapon of choice is not as effective as he hoped it would be against skeletons. He delays in making a decision.
Varuna strikes a nerve, if skeletons had nerves, and forces the pointed end of his blade into one of the bones of the skeleton. Kitajo elbows a skeleton hard in the jaw, but just short of being able to put it down permanently. Kitajo finds legs soon wrapped around by stinging tendrils.
The skeletons attempt to retaliate, the skeleton with the black shirt waits patiently readying himself under his new blinded condition. The skeleton with the green pants swings his scimitar in Varuna's direction, unbeknownst to him Varuna is 5 ft further than he realises.
Red scarf skeleton swings towards Kitajo but hits nothing but the air.
Seren finds herself in a prime position to be attacked by undead scum, the rest of the skeletons and the giant hand move towards her. The skeletons prove to be useless even with the ability to see. Seren's small wiggles in the tendrils is able to confuse them enough that their swings miss.
On the other hand, the giant crawling rotting hand looks to be a formidable opponent. It jumps on Seren once scratching it with it's sharp claws and causes her to bleed all over.
The skeleton with the grey bandana comes around to attack Varuna. Varuna demonstrates good swordman skills but deflecting the oncoming attack with his blade, but he was not able to take the opportunity to strike it back.
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Seren is quite brutally ravaged. The tentacles aren't enough to stop her from escaping the threat of the dying skeletons, but she stumbles in their grasp, too busy trying to break free to realize the hand has come for her. A vicious blow tears across her chest, and a rush of blood starts staining the front of her shirt. Despite her spirit's battle lust, it has the wisdom to try to keep its medium safe. Or it has been overwhelmed by her sudden bout of fear.
The tentacles squeeze, but some frantic twist of her body likely lets her slip their grasp and stumble a few careful steps away from the hand, a blade up defensively to protect herself from any surprise attacks. "Heal us quickly, before another attack cuts her down." The spirit speaks through her as she somehow manages to turn even more pale.
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By some divine intervention, the skeletons slowly disintegrate into nothingness before your eyes. It is as if some other-worldly power had decided the skeletons had taken too much damage and decided it was their time to leave the plane of existent.
Hangust moves into the mist to get in on some action! He is momentarily caught up in the Tendrils but manages to squirm his way out shortly to find himself toe to hand with the giant hand. He slices and dices but finds himself a little short against a giant hand.
The hand moves slightly to return the favour of an immediate full attack. The little man finds himself caught firmly in the crawling hand's grasp, the squeeze is painful.
Kitajo finds himself unable to escape the menacing black tendrils, and it continues to further suck the life force out of him.
Liliana comes to Seren's aid and provides some healing. A few of the scars leave her body, but she is still badly injured from earlier.
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Varuna just steps to the edge of the black mist, but despite trying to stay out of reach, one of the tentacles manages to grab his leg. He tries to pull away, and on the second effort, he just manages to wiggle free from its grasp.
==================================
He watches as the giant hand gets Hangust in its grasp, and makes sure to stay out of reach while stabbing at it with his blade.
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Kitajo continues to be unable to shake free of the tendrils hold on him.
Varuna hops into the mist to momentarily be tripped by the tendrils, but finds his way immediately around it. But still takes a light gash to his knee. He moves in quickly to Hangust's aid, and stabs high into the hand creature. As his blade gets in there, a burst of pus sprays in Varuna's direction from the wound.
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As the pus lands on Varuna's skin, it instinctively opaque and shadowy, as if he were no longer of the of this realm, and instead, some being from the shadow plane.
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To make things a little more simple, Torrel will move up a bit and then Delay until just before Kitajo, and then Move up again and offer the Monk an Elysium's Call as well.
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Seren gives Lilianna a rather pathetic, hopeless look that's far more herself than what she was displaying a few moments ago. "Lily... I want to go home now, please. This isn't fun anymore." Her voice just sounds sad and vaguely far off. Even after the wash of positive energy floods over her, making the wounds across her chest more shallow, the copious amounts of blood she's already lost continue to leave her looking terrible.
The dancer manages to continue swaying in place with odd, fluid motions to maintain the strength to her allies. One of the movements lets her catch Kitajo's situation out of the corner of an eye and she stares oddly at him. "Come out, I want to go." One of her weapons drops from her hand and she pulls out her own wand of healing to struggle with. It does little more than sputter in her hand.
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Lilianna takes Seren by the hand and looks into her eyes. "We can do this Seren, stay strong! I've seen you kick over an ogre, what's a little hand going to do?"
"Back up if you can, let's regroup and pick it off from a distance!" Lilianna suggests, raising her ankh overhead. "Stand back wretched creature of shadows!" she commands, releasing a pulse of holy light.
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Varuna is able to dodge most of the pus, but simultaneously heals himself from some of the spray.
As Seren is injured, she doesn't have that usual skip in her step and instead continues to attempt to get into better shape, her wand however falls short in the time of her need.
Torrel and Seren offers Kitajo a chance of redemption and attempt to aid him in escaping the tendrils, but somehow it has an extremely tight hold on him!
Likewise, Hangust has some difficulty in escaping the giant hand.
Liliana comes in with a burst of positive energy in attempt to hurt the undead. The burst does not fully affect the undead unfortunately.
A wave of negative energy pulses suddenly from the shadowy tear, the tear seems to be growing slightly larger. However the negative energy is supressed by Liliana's own channelling abilities.
The hand continues to squeeze Hangust to a point that the claws start piercing his skin.
The tendrils attempt to continue their hold on Kitajo, but seemingly after all that squirming they grow weary and finally release their grip on him.
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Seren looks utterly defeated by her own wand and drops her other sword. Even with Lilianna's encouragement the near death experience has shaken most of her resolve to step into the circle of tentacles. "It's a really big hand..." A helpless little mutter, but she takes a deep breath as a little more healing reaches the party and tries to stand tall.
She lets the other sword drop into the grass and chucks her wand over her shoulder, it's not doing her any good. Her dancing regains some vigor and she starts to spin in place before moving off around the rift of black, drawing a longbow from her back in one movement. On the next her spirit is back in control and letting an arrow fly out of a twirl in an arc towards the hand.
It likely goes wide over the undead... thing, but she doesn't want to risk hitting a friend.
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The super twins Torrel and Lilianna negates more of the negative energy burst through the use of their positive energy powers. Everyone heals to some degree, but some are still badly wounded.
Seren's dancing is unimpressive with a bow and arrow. Clearly it is not her forte, as the arrows fly of target.
The giant hand is provoked Hangust and once more claws and grasp the little man as soon as he managed to squirm out.
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Seren glides her way through several of the bushes, a few contortionist moves letting her press further along the edge of the rift as she lines up another shot. The continued pulses of holy magic spurring her on in her with more vigor. "Hangust, get out of the way!" Her deeper voice shouts at the angry halfling, only to be quickly followed up with a higher pitched "Please! and then some muttering to herself about manners.
Her inexperience continues to serve her poorly unless the hand is caught off guard in its grapple.
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Seren has another arrow fly off it's mark while Varuna takes advantage of the distraction and stabs the creature another time. The wound releases a spray of pus again, but once more Varuna easily dodges it.
Seren calls out to Hangust in the time of need, motivating him to get out of the hand. Hangust learns the trick and is able so squirm his way out, in time to give a strike to the creature with one of his kukri's using the second one as a form of distraction. Pus sprays all over him!
[oooc]DC15 Reflex negates.[/dice]
The hand is barely standing after taking all those thits, and it takes one strong high five from Kitajo to push the hand over and make it fall all the way to the ground.
With the immediate threat taken out, the team now looks towards the ever growing rift, and knows they must do something to close it permanently!
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With the threat eliminated, Varuna makes his to the rift, using his knowledge of the arcane and familiarity with the shadow world to try and close it.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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As Medda and Anok join your group of Pathfinders around the stone circle, she assists you with the binding ritual. Medda thrusts Ivvora’s hilt into the portal, calling on Vildeis for aid. The shadow rift shrinks and closes, releasing a massive shock wave that knocks the Pathfinders, the Twinhorn warriors, and Medda to the ground. A field of dark, rippling energy remains, suspended above the stone altar. As Medda reaches out to pick up Ivvora’s hilt—the already broken blade now spider-webbed with new cracks—a supernatural silence descends. Only the telepathic rage of some unseen menace cuts through the quiet. “You dare to shut me out?” it rages. “I see you, but I do not see her. Where is the dwarf woman, Ivvora, who fought me so long ago? Has her mortal body failed at last? Has the realm of the living at last lost its protector? Know this: when the long shadows reach out again, I will grasp them and claw my way back into your world to see your flesh devoured by my children.”
Sound returns to the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, and Medda cautiously stands. “It seems that Eshimka still lives and has even left this foul scar on our world,” she declares. “If we are to believe its promises, the fiend will attack on the next winter solstice. If we are to survive, we must be ready. Nearly a millennium ago, Ivvora held the key to defeating Eshimka. By following her legends and discovering her fate, we may harness the same holy power that banished this fiend—and together end the beast entirely.
“When we set out, it would be the privilege of this following to have the Pathfinders at our side. But that is a trial for another day. Tonight, at last, we rest.”
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The foe defeated, Hangust retreats from the circle, knowing this is beyond his depth, that depth mostly being slashing at things. The fact that he's still gagging from the pus doesn't help much and he kneels in the grass trying not to vomit, hoping the others don't need to rely on him any time soon.