"Right. Of course." Ary sighs, as she's once again held in place by the web. She sighs, and adjusts her positioning to better defend herself against the babau.
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Still grabbing unto Markus's clothes, Hinagiku continues to try and pull him away from the tentacles. She only pauses when the necromancer makes us of his wand.
Still, everytime she tried, she seemed to be impeded by something. Markus moving his own way to avoid some tentacles, herself slipping on a rock laying on the ground, and so on. Maybe she should forget about it...
Round 6
Ehren is up!
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With a grimace, Ehren futilely tugs against the pull of the webbing, finding himself completely immobilized. For the first real time of the battle, he looks up at Caggrigar, having been distracted by the babaus and cloudkill. The wizard was in perfect range for an attack... but with his arms bound, there were precious few spells he could weave. He did not even need to look to know that Ary was in a similar predicament. As were the rest of his friends, for that matter.
Ceasing his struggle, Ehren closes his eyes and takes a deep, calming breath. In his current state, he could fall asleep right then and there, but there was still work to be done. They were so close to their objective - there would be time for rest later. Instead, the druid taps into his inner reserves of power yet again, feeling the ley and allowing it to touch his tongue. When he next speaks, he does so clearly, each word reverberating through the air.
"Ary, yr wyf yn rhoi rhyddid i chi. Your bonds are broken."
The babau sneezes and coughs up bits and pieces of Markus' reanimated scorpion. It turns away to watch Valaria pursue its master. The demon snarls and lowers it longspear before charging at Valaria. The tiefling reacts just a second too slow - she spins around and is cut down her front as she struggles to avoid being lanced straight through.
Isilme continues her struggle against the tentacle binding her, but finds herself completely outmatched by the spell.
"Iomedae and Desna are watching over us, stay focused and we'll pull through everyone!" she says by way of encouragement to the others, foregoing her song for oration.
Caggrigar turns towards Ehren. He watches the hierophant free Ary and scowls, starting to cough violently until a cloud of wasps flies forth from his mouth - an impossibly large swarm from within him streams through the air towards Ehren, surrounding him in a horrific cloud. The creatures bite and sting at him from the air - the boy can do nothing but for the pain.
Valaria is up!
Val winces in pain as the babau's spear pierces her side, but she puts the wound out of her mind. Attacking the demon might keep her safer, but she can't risk leaving the mage to continue raining spells on her allies while she duels the fiend. She steps out of reach of the babau's spear and fires off another barrage of knives at the floating figure.
Valaria buries another two knives in the flying mage - the man is bleeding from many wounds but is sustained by necromantic magic, rather than solely his mortal form. In a similar fashion, Markus continues to channel magic from Orlovski's wand into himself as he struggles to stay conscious from within the grasp of the black tentacles.
The dying babau in front of Ary lunges at her once more, only to be swatted aside by Faith as the sticky webs simply start to slide right off of her body when Ehren works his magic.
Ary is up!
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"Rocky... you're my hero." Ary says, as she feels the webs practically slough away from her. She breathes deeply as she steps out of the web, and drops her weapon and shield, being immediately reminded by Isilme that she's being watched. "Second hero," she corrects. "The first one's keeping us safe, after all." She reaches back for the bow attached to her pack, and draws it, along with a handful of arrows simultaneously. Faith and Radiance clatter to the ground just outside of the web, followed by Ary's Crusader Cross, a thin and delicate thing, made of braided metal. It had been stored between her shield and forearm. She effortlessly threads a holy arrow, and sights it upon the flying foe.
"Swift death to my enemies." she whispers, as she looses the arrow, and immediately threads another, no need to reach to her quiver for another.
She then manages to register what's going on for poor Ehren and she grimaces. "Hey, Gloomy. His spell ends when we kill him, right?" she calls into the fields.
"Uhhh." says Markus. "I don't actually think so, but none of these spells should last very long." he says. "That is, the summoning and the tentacles. The web'll be around for a bit."
Ary recklessly moves past the dying babau - who manages to lash out with a long claw down her neck as she maneuvers past it. She looses an arrow right at the floating mage, the enchanted thing piercing right through his collarbone. The man screams, blood dripping down from the sky onto the cracked earth.
Hinagiku is up!
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Finally able to fend off most of the tentacles, Hinagiku puts all her weight backward, effectively lifting Markus and throwing him out of the field of black tentacles.
Despite the writhing tentacles keeping Hinagiku restrained, she manages to grab hold of Markus and toss him out of the tentacles. He falls to the ground and manages to scramble back to his feet and out of their reach just in time.
Round 7
Ehren remains covered in sticky webbing and assaulted by an enormous cloud of killer wasps - he is far too distracted to do much else.
The babau continues to follow Valaria, stepping down to lash out twice with its longspear. Its powerful and precise stab leaves a long, ragged wound down her hip... better there than wedged in her kidney.
Isilme is up!
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Isilme watches as the robed man disgorges a swarm of wasps at Ehren, leaving him trapped within the swarm and bound by the webs. With Markus freed by Hinagiku, things were better off, but she knows that Ehren will need all the help he can get to escape that situation.
Struggling harder, she tries to throw the tentacle off balance again as she did when she passed Markus the wand. Through deft maneuvering and a bit of contortion she manages to get mostly free of the tentacle. As she starts trying to make a break for it, it manages to grab her by the leg, slowly reasserting its control over her. "No, not now, Starsong help me!" she calls out, unwilling to give up when she was so close to freedom. Digging deep inside herself she draws upon her inner wellspring of divine energy to give her a small boost, allowing her to leap away, pulling her leg free from the tentacle finally.
She tumbles forward, coming to her feet as she sprints out of the field of tentacles around Val and towards Ehren and the robed man, hoping to be able to contribute against both simultaneously. "Markus and I are both free! Keep fighting everyone! We will pull through this," she calls to the others via message. "Hang on Ehren, I'm coming to help!" she adds as she closes on him.
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Val cries out as the babau's first strike catches her again, then she spins, catching the haft of its spear when it tries to thrust again and turning the strike aside before it can pierce her flesh.
Markus huffs as he hits the ground on the outside of the black tentacles, and then scrambles up onto his feet. "Hinagiku!" he says, looking back into the mass of writhing tentacles. "Nice!" he says, smiling and giving her a thumbs up.
He points at the cultist and calls on the powers of pain - he wracks Caggrigar's body with just a word - 'Tu nocere.'.
Now only Hinagiku remains in the field of black tentacles - with no one else for them to focus on, she is nearly enveloped in the slimy things. Nearby, Ehren is in a similar plight - coated in thick webs that hinder his ability to get away from the swarm of angry wasps swarming around him. He can't even hear the end of Isilme's brave oration for the buzzing...
Meanwhile, the wounded mage groans, clutching his wounded chest.
"Deskari..." he hisses. "Kat ra shârz har ba ishashashi skishum, bushush ri, bozg I ri skushukhushi ish ra shushari, ank al al ash abhump ugh ba hil ank ai bushurz ugh ba hat."
His eyes glow red and his body contorts horrifically as something answers his plight... several of his wounds seal over. He then turns and begins to fly as fast as he can away from the group.
Valaria is up!
"Son of a b*tch," Val mutters as his wounds close over. "This just keeps getting worse." Knowing she has absolutely no way of keeping up with the flying figure, Val draws her starknives and steps in, slashing at the babau that struck her. At least she can take down his demonic allies before he manages to get too far away.
There is a grisly snick as Valaria's Valaria's quick swipe lands on the babau next to her.
Markus is up!
"He's made himself a vessel. Exactly what did he say?"
"He did what?" She groans. "Fan-f*cking-tastic. I think it was... Deskari... Fill my soul with thy invincible power, strengthen me, that I may persevere in my service, and act as an agent of thy works and a vessel of thy will."
"Great. The moron just gave Deskari an open ticket to take him over for the low, low price of healing his wounds a little." she sighs, shaking her head, as she prepared to line up another shot.
"Ehren, I can either try to get the wasps off of you, which will hurt, or I can keep hitting the mage. I need to know which, though. I'm gonna lob some fire if you don't answer... Or Gloomy. Gloomy might not have to hurt you..?" the last part terminated in a hopeful question mark.
Markus eyes Ary, his reach for the cultist having failed to actually target the cultist. "No, I'd probably have to hurt him - I think Isilme's the only one who can avoid it." he says. Then, he just calls upon his bloodline - "But I can bolster you a little - if you believe"
Ehren can just barely hear Ary over the droning of the wasps. With his eyes and mouth clamped shut, he shakes his head stiffly - even movement as simple as that was made laborious by the web.
"Don't... worry about me," he mutters through grit teeth, lest a wasp fly down his throat. He had already contemplated burning himself out of the webbing, but in his current state, he would be liable to burn himself to death. "Caggrigar."
As Markus weaves arcane magic to subtly shift the conditions of the battlefield in his squad's favor, the wounded babau charges recklessly at Ary, but she simply sidesteps him and he flies careening past.
Ary is up!
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Ary looks at the Babau annoyed, and steps away from it as she continues to draw a bead on the naagloshii. The second seems to take minutes.
'I will not surrender those under my command.'
'I will honor a sacrifice freely given.'
'I will never abandon a companion.'
'He knew what he was getting into.'
'He's not a soldier.'
'Guard heart, spirit, body and mind from the corruption' 'It's the mission, thousands for one.'
'I will have faith in them.'
'To extirpate and annihilate their execrable race, and any who serve them.'
'As directed by those with charge of this Crusade.'
'If I betray my heart, I have died.'
"Damnit."
"Sorry, Ehren." she says, as she grips bow and arrows in one hand, and pulls an alchemist fire from her pouch, hurling it towards the cluster of wasps nearest her.
The alchemist's fire explodes - killing a sizable chunk of the wasp swarm in one hit. The flames burn the webs that surround Ehren away and opening up a small path out of the webs. Unfortunately the pain from being stung by thousands of wasps then set on fire is too much for the young druid, and he collapses, unconscious.
Hinagiku is up!
"Markus, can you heal Ehren up from where you are?" Isilme call to him via her magic when she sees Ehren pass out. "If you can get to him, I'll go after Caggrigar. I might be able to knock him out of the sky."
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Hinagiku, now on her back after having thrown out Markus from the area of tentacles, is unable to stand up, as the black appendages swarm around her.
Round 8
The remaining babau attempts to bite Valaria, then takes a step back to thrust twice with its spear, but the flying blade rebuffs its first blow with a ringing of steel and sparks. The demon snarls, the end of its blade hurtling towards the tiefling, faster than she can react. Valaria reels from the unexpected blow, blood dripping from the fresh wound.
Isilme is up!
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"Take care of him Markus, I am going after Caggrigar!" she says as she takes off after the robed caster. "I need something that will catch him off-guard..." she thinks as she closes the distance with him.
"Starsong, we need some luck to help keep him from escaping, please lend me your aid." As she begins to work her magic, she thinks to herself, "Hopefully Ary will not take this personally."
"Caggrigar!," she shouts to the robed man floating above her as she pulls up underneath him. "You missed out on a most entertaining moment... You see we were attempting to get information from your subordinates and we reached an impasse. Truly a shame. In the middle of Sorasta, a city full of demons, in a room full of mercenaries of questionable allegiance, one might expect subtlety and guile! But we were no match for our Captain. Stepping forward, she artlessly declared 'We're crusaders!' to your companions. Hilarious isn't it? You can imagine how well that went over!" she finishes with a laugh, completing the spell as she does.
The cultist barely seems to notice Isilme's joke - he's far too focused on getting as far away as possible. He gains speed and flies even further away. Meanwhile - his spells on the battlefield linger. The tentacles continue to slowly choke Hinagiku to death while, nearby, Ehren is in much greater peril as he is being stung to death by an angry swarm of wasps - though several have been killed by Ary's flame, it was not enough to kill all of them...
Valaria is up!
"Be careful Isilme," Val calls out as her friend tries to run off after the cultist. "He's only going to be more powerful now that he's opened himself to possession!" She growls and steps in to the babau again, dead set on finishing it off. Her friends need help and she needs to cut through these demons fast.
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Markus sees Ehren's predicament and runs towards the druid, making sure to get a wide circle around Valaria and the babau that she's busy fighting. "Be careful, Valaria." he murmurs.
He comes to a stop outside of the web spell that the cultist had created. He takes a deep breath and briefly closing his eyes, visualizing the kernel of power within himself. The power of life - and the power of death. Earth and the void. He speaks a few words, and the power flows out from himself, depleting some of his strength.
'Tu magnus-altus-donum'
Valaria sways back for a moment as the pain from the babau's strike washes over her, then steps in and slices before they can withdraw themselves. Meanwhile, Markus channels his mythic power to heal Ehren at range - the young druid's wounds close over and his eyes flutter open. He finds himself free of the webs - but still surrounded by angry wasps that threaten to climb inside of his nose and ears.
The dying babau staggers down towards Ary and tries to lunge at her flank - but he puts far too much momentum into his attack and slips. He falls to the ground and knocks himself unconscious.
Ary is up!
Ary grimaces as she sees the man getting away, still. She looks to be entering a mild panic, now that the last vestiges of her divine-granted powers leave her. She looks stricken when Isilme tells her joke, but just shakes her head, drawing out another flask and hurling it. She starts to briefly move away, but then stays where she is. The spearwielder is perhaps more effective if she steps out of his reach; why else would he wield the spear?
The flask flies end over end, landing easily within the swarm of wasps... and unfortunately, singing Ehren a little once more, but without being coated in web, the worst of that particular danger is gone.
"More powerful, truly?" she responds overly loudly to Valaria. "It seems to me the only thing Deskari has granted him is the ability to flee with his tail between his legs." She turns to look up at Caggrigar and continues, "But that's hardly surprising for a god who couldn't even put together followers compotent enough to finish what the Storm King had started in Kenabres. The heroes who foiled his plans stand before his servant here in the middle of his supposed domain, and all he grants our robed friend here is the health to run like a beaten cur back to his superiors? That's quite the miracle! Terrifying display of power, to be sure!" she finishes, her words dripping with derision.
Ary tosses another flask of burning oil at the wasp swarm - it explodes and ignites the majority of the swarm. Only a few angry, buzzing insects remain.
The cultist is over a hundred feet away from Isilme at this point - but he barely regards the insult. He is far more concerned with flying to Storasta as fast as possible. The enormous, demon-infested ruin of a city lays in the distance.
Hinagiku is up!
Hinagiku was about to whisper to the others to tell them they should not worry about her, and go on with the quest if needed. She was not worried to be abandoned here for she knew that she could survive the tentacles for a bit longer. However, it seems that luck was on her side, for she noticed an opening through the writhing appendages. Not wasting a moment, she runs through the opening, and finally leaves the area. As soon as she does, she finds herself facing the last babau standing.
Round 9!
Ehren is up!
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The last Ehren remembered before going under was a flash of intense heat. When he rouses just moments later, he lets out a groan, still terribly pained by his accumulated burns, stings, and stab wounds. His eyes flutter open and right away, he notices that everything within a short distance of himself seems to be on fire. Including what remained of the wasps, some of which still crawled all over his body. It takes only seconds for him to process what must have happened.
So I'm still alive, he thinks as he pulls himself off the ground, in spite of the angry, flaming wasps. Though a little worse for wear, he manages to stagger out of Caggrigar's death trap.
"You had to do it, did you?" he asks Ary with a weak smile, his eyes on the babau that remained. He shakes his head, as though to dismiss any unnecessary justifications. The ranger had acted exactly as he should have expected her to. "Thank you."
The babaus shimmer and vanish as the spell binding them dissipates, banished back to the Abyss from which they came.
Isilme is up!
"Ahem." says Markus, quietly, but before he can complete his snide you're-welcome he's distracted by the shimmering of the babaus leaving and he looks away towards Caggrigar. He sighs. "He's going to get away, isn't he?"
"That seems to be a distinct possibility," Val says with a sigh. "Now not only was this mission a bad idea, but we now either need to go into the demon infested city we tried very hard to avoid and hunt him down or leave and fail to recover the prophecy entirely."
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Ehren tosses Markus a knowing smile, but before long his eyes are drawn to the distant wizard as well. He had been afraid this would happen... but perhaps endangering himself for the sake of catching him had been a foolhardy effort.
"Now that we know Deskari's ilk want the prophecy, I think we have little choice at this point," he remarks with a frown. He did not relish the idea of going into Storasta either.
Out of immediate danger, Ehren's mind quickly moves to another of his pressing concerns. Looking past the remaining webbing and the field of writhing tentacles, his eyes scan the terrain to no avail. "Illayna... she just vanished into thin air. I had felt that there was something wrong with her before, but..." He shakes his head. "I don't understand what happened. I'm all but certain that she was still alive when it happened."
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Markus frowns. "How much do we need the prophesy anyway?" he says. "Like, what's it going to say?"
"SIX INDIVIDUALS, A DRUID, A TIEFLING, A HERO, AND THREE MORE~"
"THEY WILL KILL DEMONS"
"THEY WILL BE VERY GOOD AT KILLING DEMONS"
"IT'S YOU GUYS, READING THIS PROPHESY."
"That's... okay, I have no idea what could do that. Maybe she was a ghost or something. This mission just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"
Hinagiku lowers her, turning her head, she follows the flying wizard with her eyes while lisening to Markus.
"Mr. Markus, we might not need it, but if it feel into the hands of the Oni, it mide become dangerous to us. The more they know about us, the more prepared they will be to fight us... "
As for Illayna, Hinagiku simply tries to shake the disturbing news away. She understood too little about curses and the worldwound to be of any help with it, and it would only break her focus if she thought about it more.
Frustrated by her failure to stop Caggrigar, Isilme walks back to the group swiftly, still sped up by her blessing. She looks over the others once and notes the absence of Illayna.
"Given that the other prophecies were buried in gibberish, it is likely that even if we had the text it is likely we would not understand it immediately. I suspect they will have the same issue. Perhaps it will be valuable in the long run, but I am not certain it is so valuable we should risk ourselves further," she says in response to Hinagiku's concern.
"I have almost nothing left to aid us. If we go to Sorasta without resting, we will be in grave danger. If we rest first, we will lose him or he'll be ready for us. I don't believe it makes sense to pursue it further," she adds, reiterating her point.
The remainder of the wasp swarm falls into the webs - just singed husks and bits of exoskeleton, really.
Meanwhile, the cultist flies away, out of sight. The sun has fully set at this point, and the heroes are illuminated eerily by the devastated, molten landscape. They're battered, bruised and beaten. It's been a terribly long day.
Combat ends!