Tamm steps forward and finishes off the last of the four goblin-dogs.
He looks up from his butchery to Loxley who has started scratching herself and asks:
"Do you see Yeda down there? Did she survive the fall?"
”Oh gods!
Loxley hadn’t considered the possibility that Yeda could not have survived her leap into the water. She stepped up to the edge of the cliff and looked down. She estimated at least 50 to 60 feet to the water.
”If she landed wrong...”
She shoved the thought away before it could get a grip on her. She scanned the water back and forth when motion caught her attention. Across the way she finally spotted the warrior woman and exhaled in relief.
”I see her. Climbing the other side.”
Loxley looked up across the bridge and shot the goblins a dark look.
looking down at yeda, Loxley and Sazzat watch the warrior maiden struggle up the craggy rock face, her hands grasping at nooks, crannies, and roots, pulling herself up and out of the water.
A dark shape, fat even from the top of the cliffs, forms underneath yeda and powerfully surges high up into the air, it's maw open wide, and snaps at yeda.
The mouth snaps shut, missing yeda, as its large form brushes hard against yeda. It flails out as it falls from it's zenith of it's powerful leap.
THe goblins at the other end of the bridge, look from loxley and Sazzat, and at each other, and then turn and look at the pallisade behind them. It is easy to see they are unsure of what to do at this point.
Yeda feels the creature nudge her in the butt on a failed bite attempt, but she holds on.
Up up. Keep going up!
the strange seal/shark creature swims around in a tight figure eight pattern, cresting the waves and slipping back under, before finally swimming off, back towards the mainland.
The three goblins standing opposite on the bridge, direct their gaze down to where Loxley and sazzat all stare. Unable to see anything, they crowd around each other and step a few paces out onto the bridge. They split their time between looking from loxley and sazzat, to finding and spotting Yeda clinging to the wall. they begin to scream and holler at each other, pointing at yeda.
Loxley sent a prayer to the gods in thanks for her friend’s safety. But as the goblins began to take notice she briefly considered cutting the bridge and letting the evil little creatures take Yeda’s place as the sea creature’s meal, but she thought better if it. Instead she steeled herself and withdrew her bow.
”Oh no you don’t.”
Yeda hears commotion from her back, across the chasm and looks up to see goblins pointing at her. Sighing she continues climbing up.
Sploosh
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grasping at a root, yeda applies her weight to the narrow appendage and pulls herself up. the branch holds momentarily, and then snaps as she is in midmotion of moving up the wall. root held firmly in had, yeda tries desperately to grab onto the wall, onto a rock, onto anything, to prevent the fall. her hand catches onto the rock wall, but her backward momentum is too great for her grip to overcome and she falls back into the water, 15 feet below her.
here's what the goblins do for the round
Tamm kneels down, dropping his dagger momentarily, and pulls out his rope and grappling hook from his pack.
He drops the line down the cliff.
Treading water to keep herself upright, Yeda pivots in place to grab at the stone face again to pull herself up... only to once again be hammered in the backside again.
the goblins standing at the end of the bridge begin to hoot and holler, watching the strange creature tear into and savage the human struggling at the bottom of the cliff.
From beyond the walls of the palisade, set upon the island, drums begin to pound, and screams and howls begin to rise from within the unseen structure.
"Why... why did I run? If someone got hurt i will never forgive myself.
He thought furiously to himself as he adjusted his mask panting from the sprinting.
"Dewdrop! GO! Help the others!"
He called out to the valiant elk... who merely kept pace not fully understanding what his druid friend wanted.
Loxley aimed across the bridge at the goblins when she heard Yeda hit the water again. She looked down and cursed. Swinging her bow over she aims at the shadow circling the warrior and offers up another prayer as she releases her arrow.
Loxley spat another curse, she had seriously misjudged the range. She’d have to compensate with the next shot.
Loxleys attack
the arrow falls wide of the dark shape, disappearing below the blue surface.
Yeda gasps and growls in pain from the creatures savage bite, and feels her blood flow freely out from her wounds. twisting and pumping her arms, she turns and swims easily to the cliff wall. Reaching up, she grabs at the rock wall, but fails to get a grip onto the hard, slimy surface. She bobs below the water and then comes back up to the surface, her legs kicking...
She feels the heavy set body surge past her kicking legs, a large, heavy solid weight brushing against her shins, causing her to momentarily loose her upward buoyancy and she plunges below the waters again.
The three goblins standing at the foot of the bridge yip and howl, raising jagged and rusty blades above their heads as they respond in kind to the howls that issue forth from with the wooden walls, but do nothing else.
Tamm pulls out his shortbow and shoots one of the goblins across the bridge.
"Shuddup yer yaps!" he yells at the goblins.
As he ran he grew more and more upset with himself, a litany of elven cursewords flowing from his mouth as he panted and sprinted back to his new friends. Whatever that was in the hole was going to die, he was going to wear its skull as a warning to the next monster.
Loxley was sure that if something wasn’t done about the creature in the water with Yeda their companion would be in serious trouble. Shooting into the water a long shot at best, but the infernal itching wasn’t helping. When she saw Sazzat’s arrow strike one of the goblins she had an idea.
They couldn’t cut the bridge since they needed it themselves, but if the could get even one of the goblins into the water...
Loxley swung her bow up to aim at the goblins, doing her best to grit her teeth and ignore the trembling of her wounded arm. Drawing back she took aim at the one already hit by her companion and let her arrow fly with a small flash.
Yeda struggles to grab onto something, anything on the rock wall to be able to pull herself up. a sort of desperation is starting to creep into her head, as every movement allows more and more blood to pump out of her. The area around her begins to stain red...
the creature, returns, attacking from below again
the creature connects, its maw clamping down onto Yeda's calf, and it begins to shake, ripping and tearing at her flesh.
the arrow from Loxley passes wide again of its mark, the pain from her injury translating to poor marksmanship.
the goblin takes the arrow from Sazzat in it's stomach, forcing it to bend over in pain. howling in pain, it gives into pain and anger, and charges mindlessly down the bridge!
the two other goblins, watching their clansman charge down the rope bridge, rush after it, until they both suddenly pull up short, and wait.
Yeda steels herself, avoiding any thought of "the end." There's nothing right now but finding the right handholds and climbing. Climb climb....
Tamm steps back away from the goblin and shoots it with his bow.
yeda struggles harder, desperately searching for something, anything to grab onto to pull herself up away from this sea creature that keeps biting and tearing into her. Unfortunately, her hands just cannot find anything thatll support her weight to allow her to climb up and out from the water.
the bunyip swims up and brushes past yeda; yeda's kicking of her legs the only thing making the creature miss making contact with her.
The goblin with an arrow in it, receives another arrow for it's trouble, and drops atop one of the goblin dogs, joining the pile of corpses that loxley and sazzat have accumulated at the end of the bridge.
the two goblins, seeing their clans-goblin turned into a mini pin cushion, turn around and run away, screaming and hollering. they rush off the bridge and up to the closed gate set within the wall on the pallisade. They bang and holler, whining to be let in.
Corrin and Zeldana, both rush back into the thicketed area, and easily hear their companions struggling against the goblins.
Perhaps the end is near...
Loxley cursed her shaky aim and let Tamm take out the angered goblin. She was glad to see the other two goblins turn and run. Quickly she moved up to the pile of small corpses and grabs the one on top. With an effort she tries to leverage it up and over the ropes.
”Gods, I hope this works.”
She hopes this will distract what ever is in the water with Yeda.
Seeing that Yeda is closest to the far side, Tamm puts away his bow and grabs up his rope.
Finally able to rejoin her group, Zeldana only takes a moment to see what was going on and Loxley's plan.
"Brilliant!" She breathed out as she moved to aid Loxley in pushing the bodies up and over into the water below.
He came rushing torwards the others and like Zeldana sees the immediate issue.
"Oh no. I .. I. Dewdrop guard them."
He ordered his friend and companion pulling out and spear and preparing to jump.
Loxley drags the goblin a few feet down the bridge, and pushes the body over the side, where it free falls. Arms and legs flapping about, the body connects with a hard smack upon the blue surface below.
Immediately, the dark blur harrassing Yeda turns quickly and streaks like a dart towards the goblins sinking body. it hits hard upon the goblin body, and suddenly the body is half its size. a dark red stain fills the area where the goblin crashed, darkening the water around the impact.
Zeldana, seeing what has happened, kicks off a goblin dog over the edge, where it falls into as well...only this time it lands on shallow water, and instead of smacking into the water, its a wet crunch and smash as the body is pulverized from the hard impact.
For all her time traveling the breadth of Varisia, Yeda has shed some of her old ways and embraced the more "modern" mannerisms of those she'd met in cities such as Riddleport, and towns such as Sandpoint. However, now in this desperate moment, she is reduced to who she truly is. One of the Axe Clan.
Rage of the Sea be with me now... work through me.
He took one look at the bunyip in the water and decided that whatever the thing in the water was, it was going to die. It was killing his friend and that made him angry.
He took one look at the bunyip in the water and decided that whatever the thing in the water was, it was going to die. It was killing his friend and that made him angry.
Finally, after scrambling for something, anything, her thoughts slowly giving in to the fear that she may well be consigned as food to this creature that keeps gnashing at her thighs, she manages to catch onto a small root and pull herself up and out of the water! the water flows off of her, taking with it the familiar red tint of blood that still runs freely from her savaged bite wounds upon her body.
Loxley was glad to see the distraction had worked and Yeda seemed to have able to find a secure hand hold, though it looked like too much blood was smeared across the cliff side around where she had been struggling. Movement caught her attention and Loxley looked back just in time to see an enraged Corrin leaping over the ropes, spear in hand.
Her eyes widened as her jaw dropped. Grabbing onto the ropes she watched the Druid fall.
”Oh for gods sake, will people stop jumping off the damn bridge!”
She growled and ran towards the other end of the bridge.
"I'm with you on this one." Zeldana told Loxley as she looked over the side. She wanted to try and do something for Corrin however he was now far from her range of effective spells.
"Do you have rope?" Zeldana asked Loxley. "If we can get Yeda up then we can focus on Corrin, because he won't get out till Yeda is safe."
The dark creature thrashing as it ate at the dropped goblin loomed larger. He had not realized it but his aim had been near perfect he managed to tuck the spear enough under his arm that there was no way he wouldnt peirce through whatever hide this creature had... at least that was his hope. He could hear the others above making noises, the feral hunter inside him had however tuned them out. All he could hear was the wind whistling past his ears and the low growl in his throat.
The shock of the impact with the creature and water sent a jolt of pain and clarity through his body for only a moment before his scream sent forth a burst of bubbles as he went into the water. He could just see the broken haft of his spear still in hand a dark coloring filling the water from the creature. It thrashed for several moments before it still and he smiled in the depths the the pain hit him again.
Clarity kicked in fully this time. It occured to him that while this was probably the only underwater monster in the area there may indeed be more. He swam slowly towards the end of his spear jut perfectly from the center of the creatures chest and he grabbed a hold of it kicking in the water and fluttering with a cupped hand torwards the edge of the cliff and hopefully safety.
Bolstered by her sudden success in finding handholds, Yeda slowly pushes upward...
Sazzat rushes across the bridge as well, providing cover to Loxley.
Yeda climbs another 15 feet up the rock face, nearing the halfway point of reaching the summit...or falling to the waves below.
Blood and something else, not entrails, but flecks of bright white flesh hang about in the water around the creature that had savaged Yeda, but, in an incredible act of self sacrifice, has been destroyed by Corrins heroics. Corrin sits momentarily, waiting for signs of any kind of life from the creature, but seeing none, he looks around for another sea creature that may attack, that may emerge from the deeps. Dimly, in the far back of his mind, the hint of pain is there, the hint that he knows something may be broken, that he himself took damage, may have injured something serious, from a fall like that, but for the moment, he is the hunter, the one who kills the threat, the one who provides surety to his companions.
Don't die, don't die, don't die. Keep it together...
Seeing Yeda struggle, sazzat leaves the foot of the bridge, and rushes through the thin brush and easily gets to the top of the ledge above yeda.
Sazzat drops to a knee and drops his bag to the ground. Reaching down, he shoos away Bandit and picks up the rope that fell onto the ground.
He didnt want to abandon his kill...after all the skull of this beast would make a great headpeice... but Yeda was badly wounded... hell he was probably badly wounded. He tried swimming to where the rope was going to be trying to tow the dead Bunyip.