The winged creature flaps over to the stairwell as Jeb bursts forth and sends out a blast of bright energy.
The creature blinks as Lukas strikes out with a punch, hitting the creature, but failing to strike a key section.
As Lukas moves into place, the creature lashes out at the man, surprising him.
The blade cuts deeply into Lukas, as the blade flashes with negative energy, trying to dull his mind.
Tessa moves into place as Cobb looses an arrow, but it clatters uselessly against the creature's armor.
In spite, the creature decides to turn on the martial artist, lashing out with his blade viciously.
It floats to the west before lashing out in a wide arc, trying to strike both Lukas and Jeb, but it only lands a single strike on the bold halfling.
Initiative:
1st: Cobb; Lukas; Tessa; Celes; Jeb
2nd: Giant Winged Creature @ 5 damage
3rd: Sarasha
Status
Jeb @ 10/31 HP
Lukas @ 18/41 HP
Sarasha steps up and signals to Lukas to coordinate strategy.
Celes, seeing Lukas take a nasty hit, feels her anger start to burn inside her. Her veins bulge, and she rushes in wanting to rend the enemies' flesh as it did to Lukas.
As Lukas trips the giant beast, he slams his fist into the ground, missing its head. The creature quickly stands back up, drawing another attack from the monk.
With a roar, the creature takes to the air to avoid another fall.
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Lukas winces in agony as the grioth cuts him badly, then lashes out as the creature gets up off the floor and again when it takes to the air!
Sarasha waits for an opening from Lukas, and strikes when she sees one.
+ + + Disoriented
The target takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls. In addition, the target takes an additional –2 penalty on all attack rolls it makes against the rogue.
Frowning (although that might not be apparent behind Golarion's greatest moustache), Cobb takes a moment to study the creature and its movements before firing a single arrow.
for
Seeing that his magics were not effective Jebediah tries another tactic and shoots flames at the creature.
Burning hands
Lukas barely lands his punch on the creature, but tries to stun it.
However, Lukas' strike does not and the creature takes flight, however his second fist comes close, but the buffeting winds from the flapping wings knocks him slightly off balance.
Cobb lines up another arrow after aiming this time, but the heavily armored creature easily avoids damage as the tiny arrow plinks against it.
Lukas sends out a flurry of strikes, hitting the creature twice with his fists as Celes charges in violently, however the giant grioth is not so easy to strike. Lukas just makes it look easy.
As the creature cuts into Celes, Lukas notices that she was not struck with the arc of negative energy. He thinks there might be a recharging time period for that, but it is of little consolation as Celes nurses her wound.
Tumbling in, Sarasha tries to take down the creature with her rapier, but the blade just barely misses as it scrapes along side the large breastplate.
Jeb, thinking that his magicks are best used offensively, sends out a blast of fire magic at the creature.
The giant grioth easily dodges away from most of the fire with his enhanced reflexes, despite his enormous size.
The creature looks fairly injured at this point, but you can tell it has a good amount of stamina to continue fighting as it sends out a slash with its sword at Celes and Lukas, prioritizing the harder to hit Lukas with his first strike.
The sword swings misses Lukas, but the creature quickly turns it into a surprise swipe on Celes, catching her off guard. Lukas sees the blast ram into Celes this time and thinks it can only happen once every few seconds.
Initiative:
1st: Cobb; Lukas; Tessa; Celes; Jeb
2nd: Giant Winged Creature @ 44 damage
3rd: Sarasha
Status
Lukas @ 18/41 HP
Celes @ 7/53 HP
Finally finding a rhythm, Cobb sends a pair of arrows at the grioth, focusing his attacks on any weaknesses he can find.
for
for
Sarasha feints to the creature's leg, then quickly adjusts for a stab to the face.
+ + + Bewildered
The target becomes bewildered, taking a –2 penalty to AC. The target takes an additional –2 penalty to AC against all attacks made by the rogue.
+ + + Disoriented
Seeing how hard the creature is to harm through its armor, Lukas focuses on precision over power, striking at the grioth twice!
Celes, takes a viscous sword to the chest, and retaliates with a swing of her won axe.
She tries to muscle up, and scare the ugly thing before she swings.
Come on die already.
Jebediah attempts to scorch the groth with fire once more.
Burning hands DC16
Both of Cobb's arrow clang uselessly off the creature's breastplate as Sarasha steps up to try and cut into the grioth. She stabs a vital spot, but her blade isn't quite long enough to hurt more than average.
Lukas sends out two minor punches that barely land as Tessa thinks to react and sends out a blast of cold that shocks the creature. Jeb alternates the cold with flames as he tries to bathe the creature in fire.
Celes ends the salvo from the Bold Striders with a glorious chop from her axe, but its still not quite enough.
As the creature bleeds from the strike, he roars in anger as he swipes wildly at the raging halfling, forgoing all care for its safety or success.
As the creature slashes through Celes with his first strike, he flails around as the woman drops to the ground in a heap. He roars triumphantly.
Initiative:
1st: Cobb; Lukas; Tessa; Celes; Jeb
2nd: Giant Winged Creature @ 130 damage [Bleed 2]
3rd: Sarasha
Status
Lukas @ 18/41 HP
Celes-Unconscious/Bleeding Out @ -8/53 HP
Sarasha feints left, then stabs right.
+ + Disoriented
The target takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls. In addition, the target takes an additional –2 penalty on all attack rolls it makes against the rogue.
+
With that attack, the grioth plummets back down to the ground in a heap, smashing into the floor with a resounding thud. Unless staunched, the creature will bleed out shortly.
Status
Lukas @ 18/41 HP
Celes-Unconscious/Bleeding Out @ -8/53 HP
Lukas can't believe the grioth is still on its feet - or off its feet, in this case. After the creature brutally attacks Celes, Luaks braces himself to face the its fury next, and breathes a huge sigh of relief when Sarasha stabs it, sending it crashing to the floor.
"Phew!" he exclaims, "nice work, everyone." He moves quickly to Celes' side, saying "Jeb, can you help Celes? I'm hit too, but nowhere near as bad. That thing was mean!"
Reassured that the rampaging halfling won't bleed to death, Lukas turns his attention to the grioth, examining the crystal blade and anything else of interest the winged creature might be carrying.
As the groith tumbles to the ground Jebediah quickly moves to his fellow halfling and begins to cure here.
CLW
CLW
CLW
Lukas finds that the creature only carries two items: a large breastplate and a +1 cruel Medium-sized voidglass falchion.
The monk heals himself up as Jeb tends to the fallen Celes.
Status
Lukas @ 39/41 HP
Celes @ 36/45 HP
Cobb shrugs then frowns, as if chewing on something unfamiliar.
"Can't say. Sometimes a dragon has helpers from creatures like these... sometimes they keep hobgobs or kobolds in tow."
He takes a look at the blood pooling.
"It say anything? From the stairs, it sounded like no words I know."
As the others are ready to move on Jebediah is once again rather curious and hoists up the massive blade.
Now look at this...
Lukas thinks about the questions Tessa has asked, recalling they have seen similar monsters before. "We fought a few of them once before, at the auction for Hunclay's stuff." he explains, "But they were nothing like this guy. They were smaller, and nowhere near as strong. Maybe this one was their boss."
"As far as what he was doing up here, it sounded like he was throwing books, and we are in a library. I have no idea why it would have been doing that, but let's take a look around, see if we can figure it out. Maybe it was focusing on the books in one part of the library, or only books on basketweaving? I'm just a dockhand, so I won't be much use figuring it out, but I bet Tessa can sort it."
You look around this library and see that the ceiling of this twenty-foot-high room is painted with a scene of scholars at study. A polished wooden statue of a woman sitting in the lotus position, eyes closed in meditation, hangs from the center of the ceiling on several lengths of thin twine so that it seems to levitate. Dozens of tattered books litter the floor near the northern wall as the beast appeared to be grabbing the tomes one at a time and throwing them high into the air. You spot a tome draped precariously over the twine as proof of this.
Moving to the northern passageway, you find a long storeroom to the north (area F16a) that contains old supplies used for bookbinding and writing. Some of them may be able to be salvaged, but you can find far superior tools in Belhaim.
Sarasha looks to the ceiling, pondering.
Why was it throwing books high in the air? Was it looking for something?
There seems to be no pattern to the throwing of the books.
"Anyone have any idea who or what that's a statue of?" Lukas asks. "Maybe it hated that goddess or whatever she is? Or maybe it was just bored and playing a game, until we gave it something else to do."
Sarasha shrugs.
It means nothing to me. I'm going to check out this passageway . Anybody with me?
Cobb rubs his chin as he gives Sarasha a nod to investigate the passage.
"Looks like we interrupted it. Could be whatever it wanted is here, it just didn't find it yet."
"Don't look none too friendly like Asmur... I'm guessin' the dragon sent him in here to look for something. Maybe a book on how to stop a group of heroes from coming into your lair and laying you low...?"
Shrugging, he takes a couple steps to make sure Sarasha doesn't get herself into too much trouble looking ahead.
Jebediah studies the statue and muses.
Hmm...
Kn. Religion
Lukas moves to join Sarasha, saying quietly, "Be careful, when we went first coming up those stairs it almost went very badly. Let's wait for Jeb to study that statue a bit, then we go in, okay?"
Of course. And maybe this time you should take off the jingly-bell jester shoes?, she jests with a wink.
"Jingly-bell shoes?!" Lukas splutters as he moves behind Asha. "You made at least as much noise as..." he winds down as he catches the mischievous smile growing on the rogue's face, soon mirrored by one on his own. He laughs quietly and says, "Let's just not run into another giant grioth, okay?"
Sarasha investigates to the west and finds a barracks of sorts. This otherwise empty room contains three bedrolls and evidence of something like a campsite. There doesn't appear to be anything of value unless you are looking for a nap.
Jeb thinks the statue might be Iroran, but he also remembers there is a floating, seated daemon harbinger, so he's not quite sure what to make of it.
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Cobb meanders over to the long hall with what appears to be rows of statues and squints, looking for any obvious or unobvious traps.
Let me take a look too.
If nothing is found, Sarasha will move to examine and listen at the South door.
Lukas follows along behind Cobb and Sarasha, alert for any surprises.
The group moves east as they encounter a door to the south. Keeping alert, the group sense no danger and enters to find an odd room.
Metallic coffins with vents in their lids form a line along the southern wall of this room. Numerous large stones are heaped atop the westernmost coffin, and a foul smell of decay fills the air. The ceiling is low, making the space feel cramped.
As the group clears the rocks from the coffin and opens the lid, they find a dead body. The human looks gaunt, but fairly fresh into his journey to the Boneyard. He likely died from thirst. Aside from his clothes, he has no other items.