Gregor casts his own spells.
He will then spend one full round winding his wand back into its sheath before being teleported.
Gregor feels his blood begin to boil, gripping his mother's fauchard with white knuckles. He moves towards the closest wolves and reaches for their legs, trying to knock them prone.
After the count of twelve, Pontia stands between Gregor and Doro, intones the syllables of a spell, and reaches up to put her hands on their shoulders. With the completion of the spell, the world twists around the three of them, and they appear on the roof with a rush of displaced air.
The wizard rushes to the north edge of the roof and lowers the rope of climbing.
Vivian follows, and help Niculae having a good start climbing the rope
Niculaie, Vivian and Tara work their way around the building to approach from the north. Invisibly, they run for the edge.
Round 1:
The wolves know you are out there, and their senses are heightened, but the vanishing trick works well enough that they aren't able to target you specifically.
Round 2:
Round 3:
The runners make it to the edge of the lower building.
Pontia casts her Dimension door spell, whisking Doro and Gregor to the roof. Then she moves to the north edge and drops her rope.
Gregor is ready to act as soon as he appears on the roof. Due to his crazy long arms, he has a large area of control, and he attempts to trip Green and Pink, and does so quite easily. As Green falls, Gregor follows up with a severe smack to its head, almost knocking him out.
The wolves act. Green transforms into a regular looking wolf. The wolf then stands up.
Pink drops its crossbow, draws its sword, steps in 5'. It swings at Gregor, but missed by a lot.
Yellow moves 10' toward Doro, avoiding Gregor's range, drawing his longsword as well. He attempts to bite Doro instead, but gets nowhere with the attack.
Red fires a crossbow at Pontia. The silver bolt flies just past her ear, harmlessly into the night. He drops the crossbow, and moves toward her, drawing his sword.
"Thank you, Pontia, Vivian. Now let's make certain that Tara makes it up safely."
Doro stands silver dagger in hand in his heavy armor and looks at the snarling werewolf. You would do well to throw down your weapons and leave. We are not here for you, but the Whispering way. You will find me a more than capable combatant. he says as he lashes out with his dagger twice. He takes a step to the side, positioning himself to keep the werewolf with the red bandana from advancing on Pontia.
Gregor feels the thrill of battle quickening his veins. As green transforms, he loads up his hips and swings his fauchard.
Step, feint, kill. The scent of blood is in the air, and Gregor's teeth drip red from his barbarian chew. His eyes glow bright and yellow, pulsing to the beat of his fiery heart.
----
Gregor fails on the first trip attempt for yellow, but succeeds on the later, and then impales him on the ground. (No need to award Doro an AoO it seems.)
Pontia gestures fluidly with one hand, calling on the powers of her conjuration focus. A black haze forms in the air and streaks towards the red werewolf! At just the wrong time, the rope jerks under her other hand, throwing off her aim.
Grasping the rope in her two hands, Tara begins to make her ascent. She scrambles up the wall, louder than strictly necessary but clings to the rope like a lifeline.
Pontia's dart flies off into the distance, and Tara makes slow progress up the rope.
The werewolves are starting to worry. Red and yellow both attack Doro flashing both steel and teeth. Doro bravely and deftly turns aside each attack!
Pink tries to stand up and cautiously approach Gregor (5' step).
Gregor swings his fauchard with a speed you might not expect from such a big man.
The cut is deep, but not deep enough. Pink tries to stab the bloodrager.
The wolfman shrugs, as attacking this man appears to be rather pointless.
Vivian climbs the rope right after Tara, but with more speed and practise
Seeing that Doro and Gregor have things well in hand, Pontia delays.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to keep one of them alive? We're still not sure what clan they're in. The thought idly crosses Gregor's mind as he hacks away furiously with his fauchard. He targets the red werewolf, as this one is getting close to Pontia.
Doro side steps once again putting himself between the Werewolf and Pontia. He says nothing this time as he slashes out twice with the silver dagger.
Niculaie clambers to his feet and steps onto the roof proper, away from the ledge, drawing his bow as he moves.
Thanks to Doro's silver dagger, and Gregors sheer ferocity, the red wolf drops to the ground, bleeding profusely.
As the rest of you climb up top, the last wolfman withdraws and jumps to the ground, then running for the woods.
With a nod at the Niculaie as he climbs onto the roof, knowing the others arent up yet, Doro strides towards the only entrance and exit on the roof, the spiral staircase.
The spiral stairs rise steeply, coiling around the tower’s exterior. A scant three feet wide, in many places the stairs have been left worn and dangerously crumbling from weathering.
Before ascending, Pontia searches the fallen werewolves for silver crossbow bolts.
Hoisting herself over onto the solid surface, Tara appears with the grace of a beached whale. "Okay, made it. Where are the people shooting at us?" she asks, standing up and brushing the dust and dirt from her vestments.
Pontia finds 33 silver bolts.
The wizard stows most of the bolts in her small satchel, and puts the rest into her crossbow quiver.
"Okay, made it. Where are the people shooting at us?"
"They've been sent into the next world, Pharisman." Gregor seems different, not his usual polite self. His lips curl upwards, and his voice is half snarl. If you didn't already know him, you might take him for some kind of monster. "Looks like one of them is still twitching," he grins, poking at it with the sharp end of his weapon. "Or maybe my eyes are just playing tricks on me." He spits on the floor near the creature.
After a few moments, Gregor's rage subsides. He wipes at his mouth, the taste of lime and horse blood still strong. "Perhaps we should see if we can identify what clan these wolves belong to? If one is indeed alive, it might be beneficial to try to wake it up in order to ascertain what we might expect to find inside." He's a bit shaky. The fight was short and easy, but it had been some time since Gregor had drawn blood. He liked using big words at times like these, to remind people that he was still human. "Bah, let us press on, before my spell is exhausted. I see that Doro has determined the climb may be difficult, perhaps we should tie one another together, and go one at a time, so that any who fall may be caught. Unless anyone has a better idea?"
I can scout downstairs. Besides, we can still use my rope of climbing to ease things, I guess
“I agree, Vivian’s rope should make an effective railing - something to hold on to during the climb.”
Gregor moves slowly and carefully, picking his way up the stairs.
Using the magical rope, Vivian makes a railing of sorts to help those who aren't as strong at climbing.
You can tell from the descriptions you recall that these creatures belong to the Dorzhanev clan.
Doro will come last, tieing the rope around himself and will keep it taut and will continue to bring the loops in around his body so if he falls he wont go far.
Seeing that Doro wants to go last, Gregor is able to go first, though he has a concern. "One of my weaknesses is when I am unable to step back and away from enemies who get too close. I can also attack over the head of someone in front of me. If someone else has respectable defenses, I would prefer to go second."
I'll go first. Never heard a scout taking second position, after all. Besides, there might be traps, and I'm not that bad at finding them. Hopefully before I set them.
answers the redhead, with a wink
The inner wall of this vast space is traversed by a winding wooden stairway supported by an intricate network of wooden beams but lacking, at many stretches, a handrail or other enclosure. In certain places, two or even three stairs at a time are partially missing or gone altogether.
Climbing the stairs is roughly 1/2 move rate, so about 6 rounds per level of double moves, and 5-6 levels means a little less than 4 minutes to get to the top.
It looks like you should have at least a 5' or even 10' distance between you to stay safe.
As you look up, it appears there are cross timbers holding four immense bronze bells. Clearly, this is a bell tower.
Niculaie will stay at the rear to watch our backs, his bow in one hand while hanging onto the rope with the other.
“Better not cluster too close together on these aged stairs, my friends! We should leave at least five feet between each of us, and ten feet would be better.”
Agreed, further I believe everyone should cut a length of their own non-magical rope they carry and tie it to themselves and then tie it to this magical rope, except for the first and last, whho should tie the magical rope to themselves. so if anyone falls off, the combined stability and strength of the others can keep him safe. until he can get back stable.
A rope of climbing can be commanded to knot or unknot itself. This causes large knots to appear at 1-foot intervals along the rope. Knotting shortens the rope to a 50-foot length until the knots are untied, but lowers the DC of Climb checks while using it by 10. A creature must hold one end of the rope when its magic is invoked.
So I have Vivian first, Niculae and Doro in the rear, Gregor presumably second, and I guess Pontia in the middle with Tara? Are you tethering together or not?
"If we have to cut your rope, Gregor, I can mend it later."
"Ahh, if only I had taken the time to learn that spell myself." Too busy crying my eyes out and feeling sorry for myself. Gregor withdraws his rope and tries to hurry through cutting and tying sections of it. His mirror image spell will run out in a few minutes, and he'd like to make the most of it.
OK, so you tether each other together, with Vivan leading, followed by Gregor, Pontia, Niculae, Tara and finally Doro in the rear. You are adjacent, which still means as much as 5' apart - not quite enough for Covid restrictions, but it will work here.
The spiral stairs rise steeply, coiling around the tower’s exterior. A scant three feet wide, in many places the stairs have been left worn and dangerously crumbling from weathering. Supporting each other, though, you manage to make the climb.
As Vivian climbs the last few stairs, she meets resistance that seems to have been expecting you.
Just beneath the observatory at the top of the tower, a series of 10-foot-high arches breaks the perimeter of the column, forming a crude monopteron. The floor is inlaid with a butterfly mosaic, more protected from the ravages of time by the roof above it. To the north, a flight of
stone stairs leads up to an opening in the ceiling.
Three silverhides attack you, with yellow charging at Vivian, and the others fighting through slats trying to reach Gregor and Niculae. (50% cover)
Vivian tries to hold off the werewolf attacking her, burying the silvered blade deep in the fur