Ehren makes his way to the siege engines, regrouping with his friends. Now only Xanderghul remains with the front lines. From his vantage point he fires into the melee, but there are simply too many bodies between him and his target - the shot flies wide.
The babau in front of Hinagiku smiles through yellowed teeth, drooling at the prospect of its next attack. She strikes like lighting - 1, 2, 3, 4 times - racked by the results of her blows, the demon's smile vanishes as its body fails and falls slowly downwards. Further from her, Valaria demonstrates true grit, managing to pull off a flawless strike from a bad angle, felling a babau with a victorious blow.
With a sudden, violent incursion, the point of Isilme's weapon pierces ruinously through a babau's chest, like a nail through an egg. Thick, black blood oozes from the wound as the demon rasps for breath. Behind her, Ary looses an explosive uppercut with Faith, flipping a demon clean over and leaving it in a motionless heap. A babau from behind her attempts a cheap shot at her back, but Anevia fires a glowing longsword from her bow - the magical projectile whizzes into the demon with devastating speed, knocking them down once and for all - it evaporates into black goo on the catapult's rear wheel.
The crusaders have slain nearly half of the babaus. Realizing this is a futile fight, the demons begin to flee the scene, running down the road away from the crusaders.
The shadowy dome persists over the catapult. The heroes can hear Magigg's voice over the melee - "No! No! Get out of me head! Get out!"
Once they have reached a suitable distance away, the babaus start to simply teleport away...
Round 7!
Ehren/Ary&Anevia/Valaria/Isilme/Hinagiku/Xanderghul are up!
Listening keenly even while reloading and preparing for another shot (this skirmish isn't worth another spell), Xanderghul purses his lips in concern. To his allies, he calls, "Remember your scrolls of protection from evil!" Then he levels his crossbow at the retreating babau and lets loose with another quarrel.
"Ehren, get light on that now, Maggigs is likely fighting a shadow demon," she says, hearing the Dwarf's cries.
Focused as she is, Hinagiku doesn’t stop striking and tripping the babaus even when they start running. She takes ever opportunity she has to maim and kill the onis. Punches to the throat, kicks to the temples, knees to the solar plexuses. Only once she is left surrounded by allies does she calmly stop and straightens up. With Magigg’s words in mind, the monk starts scanning the faces of the people around until her eyes fall on Ehren holding is wand. A gentle smile appears on her lips and she calls onto him.
”Mr. Ehren, I’ll carry the light with me if you want.” she adds after Isilme, getting ready to run to the dwarf’s aid.
As the demons retreat, Ary catches them as they move, bashing them about, before activating intruder's end to interrupt those of the demons that she could and prevent them from fleeing.
As the babaus try to retreat, Val swings out, trying to cut through them as quickly as possible to take down as many as she can before they escape. "Light would be great now," she agrees. "Before something bad happened to the crew."
Ehren pauses for a moment so he can stay out of his friends' way as they annihilate the babau troops. The contrast to their last painful encounter with the demons was almost laughable. Hearing Magigg's shouting, Ehren nods to Isilme and hurries over to Hinagiku. He presses his wand of daylight to her shoulder, causing her clothing to shed light, almost as though she were a little sun.
"Can we actually kill the thing?" the druid asks, gazing into the dome of shadow. "We can't allow them to keep fleeing from us."
Hinagiku's fells yet another babau with a fearsome blow, settling even further the idea that these demons had any hope of defeating the crusaders. Meanwhile, Valaria pierces her target’s lower side, with both the impact and accompanying cry of pain going unheard amongst the din of battle.
The babaus start to cast their teleportation spell and start to flicker in and out of existence... but then Ary's glowing motes start to swell out from Faith. The Commander is suddenly everywhere at once, bashing the demons about and scattering them around in the snow. Apparently they aren't going anywhere. Less than a dozen demons remain.
Ary&Anevia/Valaria/Isilme/Hinagiku/Xanderghul are up!
Taking advantage of the Babau's confusion as they flee, Isilme catches one across the throat as it tries to pass her by.
She grins when she sees Ary suddenly disappear and begin appearing adjacent to each and every one of the Babaus, sending them scattering to the ground and interrupting their teleports. Calling out to the troops, Isilme calls attention to Ary's heroic feat, using it to motivate the crusaders and further demoralize the remaining Babaus.
"Crusaders, see the power of Iomedae channeled through your commander! Follow her lead and finish off every single one of the accursed fiends!"
Turning her attention to the darkness, Isilme focuses her keen senses on the shadows surrounding the catapult. Her piercing golden eyes scan over the terrain, looking for any signs of movement out of the ordinary, suspecting there is a shadow demon attempting to take control of the dwarven engineer.
Xanderghul heads towards the shadowy dome eclipsing the siege engineers. As he runs, he pulls a scroll from his pack - a scroll of protection from evil. Hopefully, Magiggs isn't possessed, but if he is, Xanderghul will be ready.
"Cavalry, Present Arms! Charge the Babau! Don't let them flee! Archers, ready to barrage any who attempt to break away!" Ary cries out over the din of battle, before turning her attention back to the other catapult. "I think you should be safe, we're going to go deal with one of the Invidiak." she says to Aron before striding into the darkness, looking for the Invidiak and drawing Radiance as she goes.
Ary levels Radiance at the Invidiak, "Weapons that haven't been attuned won't affect the beast, so only use those weapons that you've bonded with. Use force magic if you have it."
"Nammit. Of course I just fired my best weapon against the thing into a wimpy murder demon." Anevia mutters to herself. She doesn't immediately follow Ary's orders; she's not going to be able to get back to cover easily if she gives up her hidy advantage, and she's not terribly good at being overwatch and hiding behind things. So she takes another potshot at the Babau before vanishing into a deeper part of the snow, closer to the area that's descended into darkness... and maybe her invisible quiver would be reloaded in the process. There's a low hiss as she and doesn't quite stick the landing, though.
Amazed would be to strong an emotion for Hinagiku to experience, but seeing Ary teleport from one babau to the next, stopping each and every one of them from teleporting was most impressive. She hadn’t truly realize what the true potential of the woman was until now. She almost wondered how the woman could ever be killed when having the power to be everywhere at once.
But, there were more important matter at hand: as soon as light begins to envelop her, Hinagiku gently nods to Ehren before sprinting toward the catapult. Avoiding the retreating babaus, she jumps into the magical darkness and goes straight for Magigg with one goal in mind: pinning hi down so the oni would be unable to steal the engineer from them.
As she struggle with the dwarf, Hiangiku calls upon Irori's power to lend her aid.
"Quick, come and help."
"I'm coming." With the crippled babaus staggering and caught between the infantry and cavalry, she doesn't feel like the crusaders need any help cleaning up. She turns and rushes after the bright glow coming off of Hinagiku, rushing in to support her.
Anevia takes aim... and fires a shot right through a babau's head. Unfortunately another babau spots her just as she ducks into cover. Xanderghul shows up from the front lines just moments later.
Hinagiku moves in quickly towards Magigg's catapult and his crew, magical light shining off from her cheongsam, giving her the appearance of some sort of divine being. The light penetrates the supernatural darkness, revealing Magiggs at the center, doubled over in pain and clutching his head while his concerned crew-mates look on in fear and confusion.
Hinagiku grabs hold of Magiggs from behind - his eyes are apparently gone, replaced with only an inky blackness. The darkness seeps out from his eye sockets, his mouth, his nose in a great black miasma. The amorphous form hangs there, half out of Magigg's body, and stretches out enormous bat-like wings - it twitches and contorts in the daylight as if in excruciating pain.
Valaria and Isilme are up!
"There we are! Nice one Daisy!" Val leaps forward, slashing at the shadows curling out of Magiggs' mouth.
A trail of shadow follows Valaria's blade as it sinks into the invidiak's shoulder, before vanishing into thin air.
Meanwhile, the crusaders surround the helpless babaus and cut them down with brutal efficiency, inspired by the display put on by their brave commander. Not a single one remains standing. Others go around the catapults, finishing off the unconscious babaus who had not succumbed to their wounds yet, causing them to vanish into piles of ichor.
"A-alright men, trust the soldiers to do their jobs, meanwhile we have a job of our own to do! Crank down the arm!" calls Aron. "We've got a gate to blast open!"
Initiative Rolls!
Round 8!
Ehren, Isilme, Valaria, Ary/Anevia and Hinagiku are up!
"Right... incorporeal..." Then Val's eyes light up and she falls back a step and pulls a jar from inside her bag and rubs a layer of clear paste onto her main starknife.
With a gently push on the shoulder, Hinagiku attempts to direct Magigg away from the fray. Only then, does she give her full attention to the shadow oni. With one look she gazes up and down at it. Then, seeing Valaria take out her balm:
”Don’t mrs. Valaria, it will escape back to its master.” she says, in a weak attempt to goad it into battle. Subterfuge was not part of her repertoire. But, luck seemed to be for once.
Listening to her own advice, Hinagiku, her fists looking like little suns, strikes multiple times at the creature.
As Hinagiku had done, Ary forgoes the weapon balm and simply dives into assaulting the Invidiak who was still out in the open. "Stay spread out in case they attempt to use shadow magic to damage our troops!" Ary calls out to the soldiers surrounding the now sunlit space near Hinagiku. While this one couldn't, that didn't mean there wasn't an Invidiak in the shadow of the wall ready to hurl a fireball made of pure shadow. Anevia, meanwhile, looses another glowing silver shortsword from her bow, before skittering towards cover.
Ehren grimaces when he sees Valaria take out her weapon balm, remembering that he has a jar of it himself. Unfortunately, he left his only magical weapon behind enemy lines, not that engaging a shadow demon in melee was a very good idea for him anyway.
Still, he puts away his wand and fetches the jar, just in case someone else can use the stuff.
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The invidiak screeches in agony as it wrenches itself out of Magiggs' body - Hinagiku continues to pummel it with her glowing fists, while Ary jabs Radiance in and out of its body. It starts to flicker in and out of existence, and with a surge of speed, launches itself into the air...
Isilme quickly weaves a spell as it attempts to escape - "So, what do doctors say is the best way to get rid of an extra shadow demon? Exorcise a lot!" she jokes, but the demon doesn't seem amused.
Ayavah furrows her brow as she focuses on one last spell - Ary's command had jogged her memory on how to best get rid of shadow demons... four purple magic missiles dart out from her open palms and slam unerringly into the fleeing monster, leaving enormous holes in its body. Just a little bit more...
Xanderghul is up!
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With no long-range damage spells to speak of, Xanderghul does just about the only thing that he can do - he loads and fires his crossbow at the invidiak, knowing that it is very close to discorporation.
By the time the twang! from Xanderghul's crossbow is audible, the shadow demon is already dead - the magical bolt having shot straight through the invidiak, leaving a smoking hole much larger than its relative size would suggest. The shadow demon simply dissipates into the air, vanishing without a trace. The crusaders all cheer and shout, high on their victory against the babaus and the sinister invidiak.
"Oy, thanks fer that," grunts Magiggs, rubbing his temples. "Thought I was a goner for sure. But I'm tougher than that demon expected, ye?"
Strangely, though all the crusaders are cheering, Aron isn't. He stares at the place where the shadow demon vanished with a scowl.
Aron grins. "Glad to see you in one piece, Magiggs! Now are you done lazing about, or are you gonna help?"
"Yea, yea, yea, keep your cheek, whelp," chortles Magiggs.
The siege crews quickly mount another of Ehren's enchanted boulders - the first volley crashes into the wooden doors with a thunderous smash. The demons appear out of counter-measures... they do not interfere as they load up the catapults once more, and fire another volley at the gates, smashing them clear off their hinges.
Behind the gates a steely wall of blades and steel greets the crusaders - the schir have assembled into a formation, halberds at the ready to intercept any charge.
Round 12!
"Belay the cavalry!" yells Lieutenant Irabeth. She steers her horse towards Ary. "Commander, what to do about the schir? Infantry first, slow and steady, turtle formation, in case the towers are manned?"
"Ary, I think that we should move our infantry to the fore, but not move them into combat. Use ranged weaponry to force the enemy to come out of their bottleneck towards us. Move some cavalry along to the flank of the entrance so that they can charge across any enemies who charge out to meet us, and keep some cavalry behind the front line so that we can charge them should they simply attempt to retreat." Xanderghul gestures frequently to and fro as he talks, indicating the various places that he's talking about.
"We have archers and siege weaponry. We should use them."
Val frowns slightly as they manage to put the shadow demon down, looking down at her weapon. "Well, I guess the first demon I run into after this is going to have a bad day then." He frown deepens as Aron comes over to check on Magiggs. "You doing alright Aron?" she asks, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "We've got them running back into their hole. You've got this handled. No more shadow demons trying to steal our friends unless Arastrax has more buddies or he decides he wants a new host to play with."
"I think Xan might have a good idea, at least at first," she chimes in as the catapults break down the gates. "Even if we can't provoke them into coming out and fighting on our terms, we can soften them up with a volley or two before pushing in. We do need to worry about any spell casting support that might screw with us if we don't press the advantage though."
Isilme scans the area as the group vanquishes the Invidiak, on the look out for any other threats from the demons. She notices the look on Aron's face as the Invidiak vanishes in a puff of smoke, and realizes that something might be amiss. She begins digging around in her pack and when Val begins talking to Aron, she turns around and casts a scroll of protection from evil quietly.
Moving to join the group, she interjects before Aron can respond, smiling. "Aron is likely just frustrated by the cowardly actions of those demons. I cannot say that I blame him, given what spineless creatures shadow demons are. Is that not right, Aron?" she says, walking up alongside him and patting him on the shoulder, discharging the spell onto him.
Aron blinks with surprise as he feels the magic course through him, though he trusts Isilme and doesn't question it. "I? What? Yeah. Cowards, the lot of them. But I'm glad you guys saved Magiggs, though. No one deserves that fate."
Though he is trying to hide it, Aron seems very uncomfortable right now.
Aron blinks out of his reverie, and springs to action. "All right, men! Aim at the schir! Another payload, hup!"
"Archers! Nock!" calls Ser Ilivan. His men, as well as the women of the Bansee Squadron are arranged in formation. They draw their arrows and aim... a few moments later, Aron and Magiggs fire another set of stones, which is followed up by covering fire from the archers. The schir start to go down, one by one, and just as they're distracted - roars Lieutenant Kost.
The infantry take off at a sprint at the stunned schir, while the archers behind them continue to lay down covering fire. Once they are engaged in combat, the cavalry follows at the rear. The heroes and crusaders pour into the fortification through the waylaid doors.
The flying abominations with enormous, snake-like tails swoop down to join the fight, each of their mis-matched arms wielding a different bladed weapon. Nearby, one of the abominations manages to knock a crusader off of his horse - the man is tangled up in the saddle of his panicking steed as the monster readies to swing at him with its many blades...
Meanwhile, a cocky cavalier charges her steed into a group of schir. She thrusts her polearm confidently through a schir, while issuing a challenge to another - "Hah! It'll take five times as many of you mangy goats to take... urk!" Her eyes bulge out of her head as she is suddenly cut off mid-sentence. She can't move... she can't do anything! The schir bleat with laughter as they surround her, cutting her off from her companions...
The spell is Hold Person.
You spot the spellcaster responsible - a swarthy hooded tiefling in the distance, about a hundred feet away - his hand is raised in a choking gesture.
The courtyard is filled with schir and dretches, all locked in combat with the crusaders. The battlefield is littered with what appear to be small, green clouds - noxious emissions from the foul dretches. Sister Soba makes her way towards one of the clouds when suddenly - thwack! an arrow embeds itself in her neck. She grasps the shaft, gurgling softly - alive, but just barely. Dretches start to close in on her - weak, simple-minded demons, but then again Sister Soba is a very old half-orc...
You follow the arrows trajectory to.... the stone watchtower! There are small slits in the sides of the tower for archers to fire through - virtually impossible to fire back, they have the perfect sniping hole.
Things are going well for the crusaders - the minor demons are no match for your forces, and morale is exceptionally high.
It will not take long to clear these demons out. Arastrax is sure to know that, too.
Round 16!
Hinagiku, Ary/Anevia, Valaria, Isilme, Ehren and Xanderghul are up!
Xanderghul points up at the tower - "There are archers up there, sniping us. I could get up there, but I don't have the kit to take on multiple enemies alone right now. Perhaps we push a few infantry into that tower?"
Meanwhile, he presses forward. He notices several crusaders in deep shit and winds up for something like a baseball throw. Gathering up his own shadow, he appears shadowless for a moment as he hurls a sticky black ball of tar-like shadow at the abomination accosting the dismounted cavalier. "Somebody follow through!" he shouts.
Val is tempted to ask, but decides to wait for the moment. She can talk with Aron about his personal problems when they're not in combat.
"I've got the abomination," Val calls out as they rush the courtyard. "If we can't get a squad up the towers, you can send me up once I've turned that thing back into spare parts. I leave the soldiers pinned down by the demons to Ary and Daisy. You two are better at covering other people than I am." She rushes forward, her blades ripping through the air as she leaps at the abomination and brings her knife down hard on it.
Ehren smiles when the crusaders cheer, but does not allow himself to feel too relieved. There was still much more work to be done. He slips the jar of holy balm back into a pocket while watching Aron's quaint reaction, wondering what might be causing his odd behavior. With his friends also apparently aware of the situation however, he decides to do nothing for the time being.
Ehren peers at the tower, trying to figure out where the archers Xanderghul spoke of are shooting from. "If I get close enough I could seal off those openings. Or widen them so our people could shoot right back at them..."
He looks back down and sifts through the ongoing chaos, searching for other opportunities. When one of the cavaliers is seized by some unseen force, his eyes almost immediately snap to the one responsible. With a clawing gesture of his own, Ehren forms a crushing orb of water that threatens to engulf the tiefling. Should it succeed in ensnaring him, the druid then sends it bowling into other nearby hostiles.
Ary's mind is focused on recentering herself for the battle ahead.
She chastises herself for forgetting to heal one of her allies during the fray and promises to do better next time. She doesn't have a chance to see anything going on with Aron. "Anevia. Caster." Ary calls, nodding towards the one pinning the Crusader in the air. "Infantry, move into the towers, we need to turn them to our advantage! Archers, focus the flying abominations, prepare for melee! Daisy, can you cover the cavalier?"
Ary wades into the combat, focusing on guarding the lead Desnan cleric.
"Do any of our casters have a way to block the arrow slits in the short term?" she calls, before seeing Ehren's orb spring to life. "Don't worry boss, at your side." Anevia responds cheerily... before vanishing into the nearby chaos, despite her invisibility, keeping to cover and well away from the Schir, snaking her way towards higher priority targets.
Hinagiku’s shoulders relax as the invidiak disappears into thin smoke. For once, they had been able to slay one. Still, the monk had a hard time believing that this was all of it. Onis were able to call on others of their kind, maybe this one had done so and was still hiding nearby. Cautious, she starts scanning the surroundings while the catapults’ crews reload them and shoot at the tower’s gate.
At Ary’s suggestion, Hinagiku nods and then passes from the commander’s side to the frontline in an instant. After deftly and gracefully slipping through the ranks of the army, she comes to stand by the cavalier and her mount.
"An illusion would keep them from being able to target for now," Isilme says, responding to Ary's query. "Give me a moment and I will block their sight."
Turning to her pack, she digs out her scroll of silent image, focusing on loading the magic within her ring.
Sister Soba gasps for breath as her wound stops bleeding - it partially heals over, though it is still very deep. She takes a moment to channel Desna's blessing, healing it further over. "Thank you, Commander," she says, as Ary swings Faith with a heavy thwack, inspired by her effort.
Meanwhile, Valaria moves in to help the paladin fight the abomination, her lunging stab entrenching her blade in her foe. He works hastily to get himself unentangled in his saddle and gear while the swashbuckler distracts the flighted monster. She nimbly moves around it, dodging its many appendages until it finally spins a blade deftly into her, leaving a deep wound in her shoulder.
Further still, the cultist in the distance is consumed by Ehren's aqueous orb. Hinagiku moves swiftly to the cavalier's side - while her initial attacks are ineffective at bringing any of the schir down, she is able to protect the woman from any further harm. The cavalier breaks free of the cultist's spell. "Oh! Oh! Thank you, my lady," she gasps out, sweating and trembling from the effort of breaking the spell.
"Archers! Focus them down!" roars Ser Ilivan. He winces as he takes an arrow of his own - the snipers in the tower apparently focusing down anyone who wants to make themselves a target. But his archers listen - a barrage of arrows is sent into the skies against the flighted monsters - bringing down two of them and leaving many more wounded.
"Yes, Commander!" says Captain Vica. "To the tower!" she exclaims, grinning. She leads a troop of men and women to the tower door - an intricately engraved piece of stone, covered in dwarven writing. Next to it is an enormous statue of a dwarf. She reaches out to touch the door, feeling for a handle... when suddenly the ground beneath her feet opens up into a 30' deep pit! The elf paladin screams as she and 6 of her men fall into the darkness.
The stone golem suddenly lurches to life, bellowing in a deep voice - he screams. He slams his stone blade into the nearest paladin - the soldier flies into the tower wall like a ragdoll. When he lands, he isn't moving. The golem then raises his massive stone boot and stomps down on another soldier beneath him. Her bones crack even inside her heavy armor - she screams in agony for a moment, then goes silent.
"Get the f%+@ off of her!" yells a paladin as he swings his glowing sword into the golem - it doesn't make a scratch on the creature's stone body. Without even a grunt, the golem backhands the little paladin as though he were an ant. His neck snaps on impact.
Initiative Order
1. Anevia
2. Hinagiku
3. Ary
4. Valaria
5. Ehren
6. Isilme
7. Stone Golem
8. Variska
9. Abomination
10. Xanderghul
Hinagiku, Ary/Anevia, Valaria, Isilme, and Ehren are up!
Round 17!
"Why are the men charging the tower? We should be hanging back until we've worn them down" Isilme calls via magic as she sees the men walk straight into the traps they knew were waiting at the tower.
Having finished loading the spell into the ring, Isilme casts, unleashing an illusory fog cloud outside the tower blocking line of sight from the sniper holes.
Ehren winces when he hears the booming voice of what could only be the stone golem. Its incomprehensible speech did not get the message across,
but the loud blows and screams that followed did. "What was the pass phrase? We can't have that thing acting freely."
With the caster subdued for the time being, Ehren turns his attention to the flying abominations. He raises a fingertip and fires a large bolt of acid at one of them.
Val hisses as the abomination slashes across her shoulder, but sees that for the most part the battle seems to be going well. "Get Aron or one of the engineers that speaks Dwarven to stop that thing! I've got my hands a little full!" she shouts back as the gatehouse's defenses begin to awaken. "And look out for switches on the walls! they control some things but I didn't exactly have time to check what does what!" Then she turns her attention back to the monster in front of her and goes in to cut the thing down as quickly as possible.
While blocking blows meant for the cavalier, fending off the attacks aimed at her, and fighting back to the best of her capacities, Hinagiku still finds opportunities to gaze toward the tower’s entrance and its protective golem. As calm as ever, she lets the memory of the pass phrase surface and tries to pronounce to the best of her abilities. And so, instead of responding to the cavalier’s thanks, she instead elects to yell over the melee, hoping to reach to guardian.
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"How the hell did I forget the giant golem at the doors..?" Ary chastises herself, having let their positive morale get in the way of her recalling all the nuances of the situation.
"F*%!, f%+@, f!&*, f@&~..." mutters Anevia through the link as she appears from stealth, firing an arrow into a Dretch; she doesn't appear where she'd fired from however, as she simply leapfrogs the thing and takes off towards the door, she yells, then mutters, "Why couldn't it be a goblinoid deathrock so it'd set itself on fire and otherwise not work.."
Great clouds of smoke appear right outside of the arrow slits in the stone tower, completely blocking off their ability to see into the melee, as long as Isilme focuses on maintaining the spell.
Ehren flings a bolt of acid at the abomination - it lands squarely in its face, rendering its already hideous visage even less recognizable. Beneath it, Valaria looks around for the engineers, then recalls that they stayed with the siege weapons some distance away. But she has no time to dwell on that, with a multi-armed monster in her face. It parries her blows with its many weapons until finally an expert jab lands with a disquieting thunk in its gut.
Ary ducks behind Faith, warding off a flurry of scratching claws and biting teeth, then seizes the chance to drive Radiance clean into a dretch's neck. She feels a claw swipe down her open back, so she spins around - the dretch raises its arms feebly to defend itself, but it is far too late to stop her from making contact.
Meanwhile, Hinagiku continues to work down the schir. While her fists lack the power of the crusader's cold iron weapons, but her savagely accurate strikes land with resounding thumps into the schir's naked bodies, while dodging each and every one of their own counterstrikes. Had Irori himself been watching, she would have certainly earned his approval. Unfortunately, though she is able to remember the dwarven phrase Valaria overheard earlier, her voice doesn't carry all the way to the stone tower. With a heavy and meaty thud the cavalier's spear rends through a schir's body, splitting his flesh and exposing bone.
"I think I'm doing fine here, my lady," the cavalier says to Hinagiku, all the while focusing on her next target. "Thank you for the assist!"
Anevia's shot whistles with the blur of a hummingbird’s wings and sinks into a dretch's thigh with a sickening THWACK! She takes off with a sprint towards it - the dretch covers its face and cowers haplessly, but it is surprised when the rogue simply jumps over it and takes off running towards the stone tower. Once she's there, she bravely stands in front of the golem and speaks to it. It stops assaulting the soldiers. "Tuigsinn, mo bhoireannach. Fàilte dhachaigh," it says in a gravely voice, before reassuming its position next to the door. "Dùinidh an gaol aon uair 's gun tèid an luchd-ionnsaigh a chuir an grèim."
The soldiers breath in relief as the massacre abruptly stops. "Th-thank you, Anevia!" says Mary, fellow soldier of the Eagle Watch. "Does anyone have any rope? We need to get them out of the pit!"
You notice some odd footprints in the snow leading away from the door of the stone watchtower off to the side.
Off to the side of the stone watchtower is a hidden panel, its seams are cleverly integrated into the stonework, making it hard to see.
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul pulls a potion of invisibility off of his belt and hurries after the crusaders that were headed into the watchtower. Jorsal was likely to be in there, and he wasn't about to let these soldiers face him or his guards on their own.
The stone mouths of the dwarves engraved into the doors gape open, revealing long pipes within. The pipes churn to life and start to pump large amounts of viscous, sticky oil into the pit below, coating the soldiers inside. Then - somewhere within the doors - a spark is created, lighting the oil on fire. The flaming concoction rains down onto the trapped crusaders. They scream in agony as they are lit on fire, and try in vain to climb up the walls of the pit,but their heavy armor weighs them down too much.
Meanwhile, the heroes and the crusaders continue to thin the herds. Only three of the abominations remain, including the one Valaria is fighting. She continues to dodge its onslaught of attacks, until an unorthodox move lands unexpectedly and rakes her.
Round 18!
Hinagiku, Ary/Anevia, Valaria, Isilme, and Ehren are up!
Hinagiku has to cented herself mid-combat to keep away the screams of agony from the crusaders. She knew she could not do anything about it. All she could do was hope that either Xanderghul, Ehren or Sosiel would find a way to use their magic to save them. And so, seemingly oblivious to this, she keeps on battling the schirs with all her strength.