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Anevia GTFOs to find a hiding spot - and a place to empty her stomach.
Ary calmly removes Faith, drops Radiance, and draws the Lucerne Hammer, stepping towards the thing and averting her eyes, Enabling herself to hit it (with the hammer, not the spike) once it closes with Hinagiku. (Diagonally toward it)
Round 6!
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul trudges around behind Hinagiku, holding up the scroll that he had pulled out and intended to use to ward himself against fire - it was okay, he still had another one if the time came for that. He held the scroll up to his eyes, laying a hand on Hinagiku's shoulder and chanting the words that were recorded on the scroll. A basic barrier shimmers to life around Hinagiku, ready to neutralize any acidic substances that may come into contact with her body. "Okay, bring it on." he says.
Isilme is up!
Isilme moves up alongside the open door, surveying the situation.
From atop Külə she calls into the room, "Impressive, I do not believe I have seen a Gnoll as wizened as you in the last millennium, Skerr'esh"[/smaller] Isilme says in response to the Gnoll. "Surely even Gra'kar the White-Fang , whose twenty-year reign of terror placed him and his clan in charge of one of the largest orc hordes in Belkzen nearly 600 years ago was not nearly as impressive," she says, hoping to take advantage of the gnoll's ego. "I still remember catching a glimpse of him at the back of the swarm of thralls he commanded to pillage the Ustalavian Village I had been travelling through..." She launches into telling several tales of the reign of Gra'kar, weaving magic into the stories as she goes, hoping to render him unable to focus on anything but the story.
Skerr'esh chuckles - his laugh is a shrill series of yips and barks. "You try to enchant me, Chevalier Isilme of the Grey Garrison? Your reputation precedes you."
He unfurls a claw and finishes a spell he had readied - suddenly a cloud of oily, black miasma erupts around Isilme and spreads to some of the surrounding rangers. Two of Ser Ilivan's men gasp and choke before they fall to the ground and begin convulsing - even Ser Ilivan himself is nearly brought low by the gnoll's spell.
"Fight, my slaves! Protect your master!" he snarls. The woman he is threatening draws a dagger hidden at her waist. She and the others stand and ready to attack the rangers, their faces suddenly vacant and expressionless.
Suddenly, the stone in front of the entrance to the mine is covered with a thin layer of liquid fat, making movement perilous. At the same time the qlippoth squirms in mid-air as a billowing mass of green, misty vapors erupt from its many mouths. The gas keeps coming until the entrance of the mine is filled with solid fog, obscuring sight and completely enveloping Ary and Hinagiku. Once the tunnel is filled, the monster lunges forward like some sort of grotesque squid, its motion through the air slowed somewhat by the fog. Thanks to Xanderghul's spell, Hinagiku is completely unaffected, but the fog fills Ary's lungs, making it feel like shes breathing fire.
Valaria is up!
"I hate this thing so much..." Val mutters. Short on options and no longer able to effectively throw her knives, she takes a careful step in closer and attacks with her blessed knife. Hopefully she can help bring the beast down before it kills her.
Valaria steps forward, keeping her balance on the greased floor. She swings out against the nyogoth, but doesn't anticipate the green fog being so solid - it feels like trying to move through molasses - and ends up swinging just short.
Hinagiku is up!
Xanderghul sees nothing.
Val sighs as her blades miss the creature entirely. "Great. And... did anyone hear a spell coming from over there?" It's hard to gesture in the correct direction, but she manages to point out about where the noise came from.
At Valaria's prompting, you glance around and notice a set of small, humanoid footprints in the fresh snow that don't belong to anyone in your group...
"Thank's mr. Xanderghul. I didn't hear... but it looks like a spell... now would be a wise moment to withdraw." she says, deftly avoiding some of the qlippoth's tentacles while looking for and opening.
Seeing one, the monk reaches deep within herself, at the very depth of the calm pool within her mind, until she finds a concentrated seed of peace and empathy. She then channels its power unto her fists, striking multiple times at the horrible creature battling them.
Hinagiku unleashes a flurry of blows, her enchanted blows managing to bludgeon the monster, though the fog makes it difficult for her to see.
Further away, Anevia manages to find cover behind a long-abandoned minecart. She wretches onto the snow as quietly as she can manage.
Ary and Anevia are up!
Ary uses the last charge of her dragonscale to enchant Hinagiku, while performing a lovely coughing fit.
"I can't stay in that." she coughs. "Someone just cast nearby. A woman, hidden. Doom of the Slippery Rogue. It's usually arcane, but antipaladins can do it, too." she finishes as she grips the two-handed hammer, and keeps her eyes on the snow around her. "The spell will follow us, probably. Keep it at bay, Daisy, but try to withdraw from the cloud when you can. Everyone be prepared for the next spell... I doubt it's going to stop with just the one."
Ary reaches over to Hinagiku with her scale and the kitsune feels a sense of inner peace as her thoughts and movements become more... focused. Ordered. The Commander then attempts to leave the fog, but slips and falls on the greased ground with a thud, narrowly escaping the qlippoth's lashing intesti-cles.
Though the situation in front of you continues to escalate, in your ear you hear the reports from the captains - many of the tieflings are begging for mercy, not wishing to freeze to death.
"Just a few more of these cavalry to mop up on my end, Chevalier," reports Captain Halse. "Winning a battle against these odds in a blizzard... this one's going to make a fine story to tell back in Kenabres."
"Keep focused, don't act like it's over until it is truly over," says Chevalier Irabeth sternly. "...Order the tieflings to disarm, and keep them cornered in their domiciles. We'll figure out what to do with them once the Commander is back from her mission."
Round 7!
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul sighs. Hearing Valaria talk about some nearby invisible enemy spellcaster made Xanderghul feel a mixture of annoyance and excite went: a wizard to test and defeat, but a chore to complete. "Sorry, guys. The nyogoth you'll have to handle. Step back a few feet, I won't have time to handle the nyogoth and you all have to get out of the mist."
Then, he passes a hand over his eyes. He chants the arcane words of revealing, and his eyes begin to glow a soft white.
Xanderghul tests the greased surface and nearly falls, but manages to catch himself before falling on his face. Unfortunately the effort means he's stuck where he is.... but outside of the cave the storm winds have caused the acidic fog to dissipate, and the remaining hazy green miasma isn't nearly as harmful as the thick, cloying cloud within the mine's entrance itself. He can see his environs clearly... well, as clearly as one can see in the snowstorm.
There are also apparently clones of her, all moving in unison. But... you know that trick, don't you?
Noticing you watching her, all six of her wave at you, winking cheekily.
Skerr'esh grins.... his sharp teeth are yellowed with age. Shielded on all sides by his women, he begins to chant a spell in Gnoll - a language spoken in growls, yips, and barks.
Isilme is up!
Xanderghul tilts his head, squints one eye (in classic madman fashion), smiles and waves back. He's slightly disappointed at the weapons she holds - even as a wizard (which he doubted she was) you aren't supposed to rely on such things, so it was much more likely that was was a helpless little bard. Easily crushed. He smiles unsettlingly and waves back before murmuring, "There is indeed another invisible foe - a sprightly little elf with a sword and some mirror images. I'll take care of her."
"Watch Out, Ser Ilivan!" Isilme calls out as she realizes what is happening, bolstering her warning with magic and giving up on her illusion to do so. She frowns at the immediate after effects of the spell, with two soldiers dead, her body racked with pain, and both Ayavah and Külə having been hit as well. "Well, that was bound to happen eventually," she manages between coughs. "Külə, Ayavah, are you both alright?" she asks, taking stock of the situation. "I lost the illusion Captains, be prepared for the howlers to close again!," she calls out through the message spell.
Gazing at the women around the room, she tries to judge whether they are acting of their own free will, or whether they are being magically forced to fight.
Reaching back to her pack she digs out a small flask and takes it into her hand. It was clear he was attempting to cast a spell, and she wasn't certain what it was, but she wasn't about to let him get away with another cast, regardless of what it was.
"Ayavah, I need some of your magic missiles on that cur in the room immediately," she calls to the tiefling. "before he can finish casting the spell. Ser Ilivan, you and your men focus on him as well," she adds.
Ser Ilivan braces himself against the wall and coughs up a bit of blood. "I'll be fine, Chevalier. I've had..." He hacks a bit more. "..Worse."
It seems that the women are under the effects of some sort of compulsion, though you haven't any idea what spell it could be. While you consider this, you fling your vial of alchemist's fire at Skerr'esh. It catches his robes alight... panicked, the gnoll yips and extinguishes the flames, interrupting his casting in the process.
From behind you, Ayavah nods, her hands glowing with purple light as she prepares her spell. "All right."
The elf woman blows you a kiss and waves, mouthing "Buh-Bye!", then turns and vanishes into the acid fog.
The qlippoth confronts the three warrior women in the haze of its own acidic green fog as Xanderghul's shadowy constraints vanish into the air. Hinagiku bravely steps forward to protect her two friends, but takes the brunt of the assault as a result. Though Xanderghul's spell protects her from the monster's digestive acids and the poisonous cloud, she is barraged seemingly on all sides by lashing intestines tipped with toothy maws, so much so that she can't hope to dodge them all. Her body is covered in small bite marks, the blood running red into her white tunic.
Valaria is up!
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Val growls. Caught between leaving her allies to try to fight the thing and the cloud slowly burning her lungs, she goes all out, her blade tearing through the creature's flesh with brutal slashes.
Valaria's strikes are focused and precised - with one slash she cleaves off several of the monster's intestines, with another she drives the point of her starknife deep into its center mass, twisting it as she draws it back. The nyogoth screams horribly, the lawfully aligned dagger sending shocks of pain into it beyond anything it has ever experienced before.
Hinagiku is up!
Against Hinagiku's expectations, Valaria stays within the fog, fighting the nyogoloth. It wasn't safe the monk thought at first, she could protect them while their retreated to better fighting grounds. But then halfway through the tiefling's attacks, she realizes how devastating it will be for her foe and she fully joins Valaria in the attack.
"Impressive.." Hinagiku whispers while she strikes through the fog.
The nyogoth flails around wildly, its severed intestines spraying copious amounts of digestive acids all over the women, leaving them with horrible smelling burns. Hinagiku does her best to strike at the monster, but finds that in the chaos within the murky green fog, she has difficulty landing a hit.
Ary and Anevia are up!
Anevia works to figure out exactly what's going on back where everyone was fighting. She'd expected everyone to come back out... she sees the sheen on the ground and frowns... before hurking again.
Ary doesn't feel she has many options, realistically. If she moves out of the cloud, she won't be able to see her foe. And even that assumed she'd be able to move once she stood up, which was hardly an option - she'd tested that once and it didn't work out well at all. She could help take down the caster if she could see it.
She huffs. She didn't have many options, really. But at least she could cover her allies. Not breathing would be a plus, but they needed her guidance.
"Keep going, you two. Don't worry about me. I'll help you keep it blocked in. Be careful of the core mouths." as she speaks, the golden motes flow outwards, though they're considerably more dull, as if there's something not-quite-right with them. Even before she's finished sending them out, she's already willing them back inwards.
Ser Ilivan and his rangers step forwards against the gnoll spellcaster, but the women throw themselves at the soldiers with seemingly no regard for their own safety. The rangers fight defensively, unwilling to employ lethal methods to dispatch a group of scantily-clad and poorly armed women, but as a result are unable to reach the aged cultist behind them.
From the back, Ayavah fires off a set of four missiles - they soar through the melee, dodging bodies until they find their target.
Külə watches the fray anxiously. "Those women... they have suffered enough. Don't let them suffer more, needlessly."
Meanwhile, your ears ring with the voices of the Captains and clerics, coordinating their actions. From what you can tell, the battle has winded down.
"My sector is clear," reports Captain Cobelen.
"Same here... just a few runners. We can't shoot them down, but we can't let anyone escape," adds Captain Vica.
"We've got a lot of wounded with howler barbs... let's set up in one of these longhouses and start with the extraction. Any sign of our Commander?" calls Briathos, cleric of Iomedae.
"Got a clean one over here, Father," says Captain Striegher. "The people inside fought to their last...not the brightest idea, but hey, they were cultists, after all."
"Not yet, Father Cassiel,"[smaller] says Chevalier Irabeth. [smaller]"We need to set up a defensive perimeter. Captain Kost, get some of your people up in those watch towers, watch our backs... Keep the cultists who surrendered unarmed and sequestered in the longhouses, with a guard of at least fifteen men outside each. Father Cassiel, set up an infirmary to tend to the injured. The rest of you march towards the mines. We're not finished here, yet."
Round 8!
Xanderghul is up!
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Xanderghul sighs. That elf woman had run directly into the acid cloud. "Hey!" he shouts. "Come back here and face me!"
Meanwhile, he waves a hand at the nyogoth, just trying to get it out of the way. Wizard battles are interesting! Terrifying tentacle monsters, not so much so. A quartet of missiles shoots out of his hand at at the tentacle monster that stands in their way of entering the mine.
Xanderghul rolls his eyes and realizes that he can't at all see the creature. He sighs, having wanted to conserve maximum resources, but lets loose a wave of holy energy at it anyway, intent on ending the battle as quickly as possible.
;
Xanderghul aims his spell at a point far enough within the fog so that his allies aren't caught in the burst. The holy light envelops the nyogoth entirely, obliterating a few of its smaller limbs. It falls to the ground before the women with a crash.
"Ah, but if I'm going to die you're all going to die."
Skerr'esh grins unpleasantly, extracting a small green vial from the sleeves of his robes.
"Deskari's will be done," he says, then uncorks the vial and drinks it. He chokes on the vial, gagging as the poison rips through his body... and magically, those around him also start to gag, afflicted by the same mysterious poison.
Skerr'esh just cast a rare spell known as Doom of the Serpent's Coils - originally developed in Nidal, it allows the caster to poison themselves and exude a 10' aura... anyone within that aura is also subject to the effects of the poison.
The poison itself is quick and deadly - if the afflicted can survive 6 rounds, it passes naturally... unfortunately, the caster can choose to accept the poison in his body (forego his saving throw) and inflict a -2 profane penalty on others' attempts to shake the poison off.
Isilme is up!
"Ah, but if I'm going to die you're all going to die."
Skerr'esh grins unpleasantly, extracting a small green vial from the sleeves of his robes.
"Deskari's will be done," he says, then uncorks the vial and drinks it. He chokes on the vial, gagging as the poison rips through his body. He focuses, attempting to cast a spell using the poison as its core component... but the little fact that his robes are on fire and burning him interferes with his concentration and he fails.
Isilme is up!
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"Külə, if we are going to save those women, we need to get in there. They may suffer in the process, but he will assuredly kill them all if he gets a chance, we need to press forward and knock them out of the way so we can reach him," she whispers as she leans forward close to Külə's ear.
"It seems being set aflame is detrimental to your plans to take all of us down with you," Isilme says with a chuckle."Everyone close your eyes!" she shouts as she draws her rapier and pats Külə on the side to let him know to go. Sending arcane energy through her blade, it shimmers briefly before bursting into flames. She guides the unicorn through the door and barreling up to the gnoll, hoping to press through and land an attack on him.
Külə sighs, hesitating for a moment... before mutely nodding. He raises his head and barges into the longhouse, shoving two of the women aside from in front of him. The rangers all close their eyes in time to avoid the unicorn's baleful gaze, but several of the women double over in agony. Isilme thrusts her flaming rapier forward, embedding the tip cruelly deep with her foe.
Meanwhile, down near the mine, the heroes stand within a toxic green fog over their vanquished foe. There is no sign of the enemy spellcaster, nor Brae-Hagen.
Valaria is up!
Barely able to stay on her feet, Valaria does the smart thing and retreats out of the cloud in to the snow outside.
Valaria nimbly dodges the grease trap and escapes the acidic fog.
Hinagiku is up!
"It is dead." Hinagiku says to inform those outside the fog. "Ary, I'll guard the rear, you can retreat out of the cloud." she finishes.
While she waits, Hinagiku flicks her wand healing some of her wounds.
Anevia and Ary are up!
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Ary manages to drag herself out of the grease with some degree of annoyance, retrieving her weapons, before putting them back on, and stowing the hammer.
Meanwhile, Anevia returns, bow drawn, slipping amongst the rocks, when Hinagiku calls out that it was dead. "Well, I'm ready for dinner, now... Calamari, anyone?" she asks, before returning to her formerly quiet self... and getting off to the side.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." You feel a rustling in your backpack, and a small claw reach out to grasp your shoulder. "Eeesh, boss, you've seen better days. Don't you have freakin' healers in this... fancy paladin army of yours?"
Not wishing to harm the slaves further, Külə lowers his head and closes his eyes. The bewitched women stand and surround him. They start to lash out against the unicorn, though their daggers have little effect on his scarred hide.
"Get those women away from him! Make room so that we can help the Chevalier!" calls Ser Ilivan, grabbing a struggling woman by the wrist. He and the other rangers try to pull them away from the situation with little success. Ayavah's purple missiles soar over them, smashing into Skerr'esh.
You hear Irabeth in your ear - [b]"Isilme? Need a report on your situation, do you need help?"
Round 9!
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul dives out of the grease pile and crawls a few feet to the edge of the acid fod and the grease pile. "Seems more efficient to wait out here until both spells expire." he says, "Though I can disable one if we want." He had gotten through the battle without a scratch on him, which was good. On the other hand, Valaria, Hinagiku, and Ary were all pretty badly beaten up. "That elf woman's still around. I think she dove into that fog and into the mine. Not sure what to think of her, to be honest."
On the ground, he pulls out one of his scrolls of ray of exhaustion. "What next, Commander?"
"Honestly, I don't know. The fact that she was able to just move right through us if she went back into the mine is... annoying. It's reasonable to believe this is the only exit... and waiting out her invisibility would also be of use. There's also the option to go help the others since we've taken out one of the major threats..." Ary sighs.
Springing forward, Skerr'esh lances his spear into Isilme's midsection. Sensing his rider's pain, Külə's broken horn glows softly with light, and the wound heals immediately back over as soon as the blade is withdrawn.
Isilme is up!
Val groans and clamps a hand over one of her numerous acid burns. "Given the state of the mine entrance right now, I suggest we find a couple of clerics and get patched up while we wait for the spells to dissipate. I'm going to pass out from a stiff breeze as it is and I'm not going to be of any help against the their leader if he can sneeze in my direction and kill me."
With an opening to Skerr'esh, she presses the attack, leaving herself open to be hit. Külə's timely heal, however, negates the majority of the damage. "Thank you, Külə," she says as she prepares to return the favor.
"The battle is over and your army defeated," Isilme calls out to Skerr'esh. "Your plans ruined, and soon the entire north will be cleared of cultists and demons. Put simply, you have failed!"
"Subdue the women and aid us in bringing this mongrel down!" she calls to all nearby. "For the Crusader-Queen!" she shouts as she jabs her rapier into Skerr'esh a second time.
Isilme lances her weapon into Skerresh's robes and withdraws, her blade red with blood. The gnoll laughs - a shrieking, hyena-like chortle.
"The swarm is endless. You may win here, but you will never defeat us!"
Ehren is up!