Isilme is up!
Moving forward past the others, Isilme tumbles under the spear of the nearest Babau, striking at it with her rapier after enchanting it with the same wicked edge as she had with Staunton.
Isilme tumbles forward and slides her rapier deep into the surrounded babau as it teeters helplessly out of balance after Ary slams into it with Faith. Even Joran whallops it on its head with his hammer, though his weapon is made of mere steel and the demon simply heals most of the damage back as soon as it happens. Then, Anevia gets off a perfect shot into its stomach, only for Valaria to drive her starknives deep into its chest. It melts into bubbling ichor around her blades, dripping down onto the fallen cultist in front of her. But as soon as the heroes finish off one babau, another abruptly appears amidst the fallen cultists.
Meanwhile, Ehren finds it difficult to launch a bolt of acid past giantess-Ary-Bishop - erring on the side of not scalding his friend with a blast of corrosive chemicals, his shot lands harmlessly on the stone floor.
Finally, one of the cultists next to Hinagiku drops his bow to the floor and draws his blade. He swings it at her, but the monk effortlessly dodges the blow.
Xanderghul is up!
You don't know, it could be either of those possibilities.
Suddenly finding himself surrounded by foes, Xanderghul's mind shifts through a dozen tactical scenarios in an instant. He considers the effects and probability of various spells he could use on the opposition, and whether it would be worth it or not. As much as he would like to grind through this peasant opposition, it seemed as though nothing he could do was optimal. With that decided, he allows his reflexes to take over.
He steps away from the squad of babaus that had hopped in to join them, and for a moment he vanishes. It's not entirely clear where he went, not even to Xanderghul, but a moment later he ends up in the other room, his features obscured by a shadow.
Blinking away the darkness, Xander can feel the magic that he had just invoked, can remember the brief appearance of the Shadow Plane. For not the first time, he had called on magic that he didn't quite understand.
Well, there was plenty of time for understanding later. He moved back up again to better see the battlefield.
The cultist in front of Ary unsteadily climbs back to his feet and swings at Ary with his blade, but she is faster than he is... she raises her shield arm and the blow bounces harmlessly away.
Meanwhile, a cultist around the corner and out of sight from her fires twice at Hinagiku, but the more she is surrounded, the more she seems to settle into the ebb and flow of battle. She weaves between both shots, not taking her attention off of the foes around her the whole while.
Ayavah is up!
Ayavah frowns slightly and hesitates for a moment. Then she reaches out and her hands glows with blue force as she fires a stream of force missiles into the injured cultist lying on the ground in front of Ary.
As the cultist begins to rise to his feet, Ary nonchalantly brings Faith around into a violent backhand.
Ary slams the cultist in front of her into the babau behind him, but the demon snarls and pushes him away from it.
Meanwhile, the babau in front of Hinagiku leaps at her from the ground with its teeth bared. She steps aside, then attempts to throw it back down onto the ground, but the Abyssal influence in the basement clouds her mind, her reflexes, and she finds she lacks enough strength to overwhelm the demon.
Then, the doors to the south suddenly fling open, revealing a long stairwell that ends in a dimly lit room, made all the more eerie by the red glow from the walls. The room at the end contains a restraining table and various implements of torture. Three babaus emerge from the stairwell. The fastest of the three lunges at Hinagiku, but she ducks around the corner, using it as cover against its gnashing teeth.
Round 3!
Hinagiku is up!
Hinagiku is unpleasantly surprised when Xanderghul disappears, she had jumped into the fray thinking that her companion was in danger, and now she was left alone. Chasing these thoughts from her mind, she slowly backs up towards her allies, tripping any foes attempting to strike at her while she moves.
Hinagiku knocks two demons and a cultist down and backs up towards Ary. The babau in front of her stands back up, then thrusts forwards with its spear. Ary reacts just in time, pushing the pointed tip away from Hinagiku's neck with her enormous hand.
Isilme, Ehren, Ary, Anevia and Valaria are up!
"Mr. Xanderghul, is there anyway your magic can misderect them... I don't think we have much time to deal with these onis....." Hinagiku asks as she takes a step towards the babau who stood up and strikes it.
Xanderghul shakes his head. "No, I don't think so. I think we just have to overpower them."
"Without any more miracles, the only way forward is through." Ary responds to Daisy, as she brings Faith into the Babau behind the nearest cultist, ignoring the nearest Cultist; they were dangerous, but Ary was much better suited to dealing with the Babau.
"Well, yeah, guess we'll just have to be our own miracles, huh boss?" Anevia asks from the corner as a bolt of pure silver light arcs through the melee towards their bunched-up foes.
Isilme, Ehren, and Valaria are up!
"They're definitely getting desperate to slow us down though," Val grunts as she shifts forward, closing in on yet another babau and lashing out with both of her daggers.
Isilme and Ehren are up!
Stepping to the side, Isilme continues her assault, twisting around to bring her blade in an arc at the cultist beside Ary. She follows the initial stroke with a second quick slice, taking advantage of the opening created by the first slash. "We have all we need to do so," Isilme adds optimistically in reply to Ary.
Isilme nearly downs the cultist in front of her with a pair of slashes, leaving him bleeding profusely from two deadly wounds.
Ehren is up!
"Let's push a little harder, then," Ehren says as he releases his grip on his rock, allowing it to clatter to the ground. With more and more demons arriving to obstruct their path, it seemed prudent to exercise at least some of his remaining spell power. Eyeing the center of the enemies' formation, he waves his hand at them in a sweeping motion, evoking a flash of searing white light that engulfs the cultists and babaus. Robbing them of their sight would make them even easier for the others to carve through.
An explosion of light washes over the cluster of babaus. Their reflexes are too keen to prevent them from being blinded by the spell, but the divine magic sears into their flesh all the same. The cultists, already injured, are not so lucky. The man already bleeding to death from Isilme's rapier simply explodes into dust, while the other cultist on the floor is left barely clinging to life.
As soon as the light vanishes, Ary slams her shield into the babaus, pushing two at a time back down the stairs. This creates an opening, which Anevia is quick to seize. She fires an arrow into the heart of one of the approaching babau, which melts into ichor around it, trickling down onto the stairs. But the demons are relentless, and yet another babau pushes its way up the stairs and thrusts its spear at Hinagiku, though the clumsy motion is trivial for the kitsune to dodge.
Soon afterwards, Joran trails behind Valaria as she pushes further into the fray. He whacks it once upside the nose with his small hammer, then steps back as Valaria drives both of her starknives into its belly. The cultist next to it attempts to pull himself to his feet and swipe at Valaria with his blade, but Hinagiku quickly intercepts the strike.
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul steps farther into a corner, farther behind Ary. Peering out between all of his allies, into the midst of the deadly combat, he mentally reviews the words and gestures for a new spell. He had studied the techniques of their foes, the shadow demons, and now he thought he had the inspiration to replicate what they were capable of. Projecting his soul into the body of a foe. Now was the perfect chance for a field exercise, so he focuses on the newest addition to the battle and, performing a quick series of gestures, closes his eyes. Suddenly, there is a feeling of utter weightlessness. It reminds him of when he had projected his shadow, but he knows it is not quite the same. His spirit probes at the newest babau arrival, rushing into the creature's body in an attempt to overwhelm the demon's will.
Val swipes out sideways at the cultist as he tries to get to his feet.
Abruptly, Xanderghul collapses to the ground in a heap. He isn't breathing. He appears to be dead.
He cast the spell possession, which is why he appears dead.
The Babau has 21 STR, 13 DEX, 20 CON. It has 73 HP. It has 19 AC (8 natural armor). It is carrying a mundane longspear, and can make bite and claw attacks, albeit these are both secondary natural attacks.
You have access to the following natural abilities: DR 10/cold iron or good, Darkvision 60 ft, Energy Resistance 10 (Acid/Cold/Fire), Electricity and poison immunity, Protective Slime (1d8, DC 18 reflex), Spell Resistance 17.
Meanwhile, a distant cultist fires two more arrows at Hinagiku, but despite this distressing turn of events, she still manages to dodge both shots.
Ayavah is up!
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Ayavah gawks for a second as Xanderghul collapses to the ground. "Uh... Val, I think Xanderghul might have gone and done something. Be careful." She visibly grapples with herself for a moment, then grumbles. She reaches down to touch his unmoving body and a haze seems to form around him. "You owe me for this..."
One of the babaus stands up and attempts to maneuever into position to skewer through Valaria, but the tiefling is simply too fast for it. Behind it, another Babau attempts to bully its way up the stairs and thrusts upwards at Ary's chest, but it bounces off of her breastplate, while another thrusts its spear twice at Hinagiku.
I also feel that you should receive a +8 racial bonus to perception and stealth since those seem to be innate abilities of the body rather than the mind.
Round 4!
Hinagiku is up!
Hinagiku gives a quick look at Xanderghul, concerned that he suddenly felled... without even any foes being present. She looks left and right to find the source, but when nothing is apparent, she focuses on the swarm of babaus heading their way.
"Ms. Ayavah, what do you mean by gone? Will he be okay? Are you in danger back there?" the monk whispers as she strikes her opponents.
Hinagiku pulls two babaus down to the ground and strikes one once for good measure, but she is too distracted to protect Valaria from the barely standing babau in front of her. It backs up and thrusts its spear through her stomach... only to growl with frustration when it realizes what it thought was its target was an illusion all along.
Isilme, Ehren, Ary, Anevia, and Valaria are up!
As he settles into his new body, Xanderghul has to actively restrain himself from gagging. How can these creatures be okay with being so slimy all of the time? Gods, he wants to shower, badly.
As he's pushed around by yet another babau coming from behind, he turns and lunges at the creature with his new form's teeth. The more reinforcements he could keep behind him, the better.
Xanderghul sinks his teeth into the surprised babau who snarls and pulls away. It doesn't have time to address this peculiarity as Hinagiku pulls it down to the ground soon after... but the bite mark on its shoulder quickly fades away into new flesh, leaving nothing but a foul acidic slime in Xanderghul's mouth.
Isilme, Ehren, Ary, Anevia, and Valaria are up!
Ehren is a second too slow to catch Xanderghul when he abruptly crumples to the ground. In a moment of pure reflex, the druid drops to one knee and rolls the wizard over. Just by looking at him, he could tell that attempting resuscitation would be a useless endeavor - he was gone.
"What do you mean?" Ehren asks Ayavah quizzically, trying very hard to keep his calm. He could not afford to panic in the midst of battle, especially after a comrade has fallen. Not like the last time. With no apparent cause of death, he was very much willing to believe that this was some trick of Xanderghul's. In lieu of mourning the wizard's death prematurely, the druid begins to form dancing starlights around his free hand, intending to summon some backup of their own.
Val makes another quick swipe at the babaus as the demons struggle to regain their footing against the strike team. "Well, they're determined if nothing else..." She sidesteps, closing in on the next babau and cultist and lashing out with her daggers once again.
Ayavah looks momentarily surprised at the question. "Oh, right. I think he cast a possession spell on himself. He's not dead his soul is... probably in one of them. Somewhere."
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Ehren is able to pause his concentration for just long enough to let out a sigh. "That... sounds like something he would do."
Isilme, Ary, and Anevia are up!
Isilme takes advantage of the Babau on the ground next to her, slashing at its throat quickly in an attempt to finish it off.
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Overhearing the concerned murmurs of his teammates, Xanderghul is touched in a cursory way. He spits out some foul acid, though notes the privilege of having a body resistant to such things. As usual in such situations, he decides to badly overact, and throws his new claws up in the air in a menacing fashion. "Ah-ha!" he calls, "The bodies of your allies are mine now! Prepare for death!"
Ary's eyes widen as the shabti simply flops to the ground, she turns to gauge where the attack had come from, but sees nothing that could have been the cause... things were going badly quickly. When she's informed of the shabti's lastest hijinx, her eyes narrow. "Gods damn it, Xan." Ary says in a voice that Xanderghul has likely heard from Valaria significantly more often than anyone else in the party. She heaves a sigh as she Lifts the nearest babau off the ground with a shield slam, physically hurling it towards the now-possessed babau in her annoyance.
Anevia, for her part, simply slips forward a bit to get a better shot at all of the enemies in the room. Her movements have a more fluid grace than her usual ones - her bow isn't raised until just before each shot waiting to line things up as the opportunity arrives, rather than willing the shot to happen - her focus is clearly on her surroundings rather than her bow.
Isilme rapidly jabs at the babau on the floor, using its disorientation to her advantage to land an extra hit that wouldn't otherwise be possible. When she steps back, Ary slams her shield into it, sending it flying into the two babaus behind it. Xanderghul finds himself shoved further down the stairs by the impact, and the babau who suffered the full force of the blow simply explodes into black ichor, coating the other babau in its filth. Once recovered, the babaus turn to regard Xanderghul with some level of confusion, but they don't have time to regard what just happened to their fellow demon as Anevia fires an arrow into one of their backs.
Joran continues moving forwards and whacks the cultist next to Valaria twice with his hammer. He falls to the ground with a sickening thud, likely dead, just as Valaria drives her starknife into the wounded babau and sending it back to the Abyss.
Xanderghul is up!
Seeing the enemies falling quicker than anticipated, Xanderghul elects to conserve the magic that he was considering using, and simply unleashes a flurry of claw and bite attacks on the nearest foe, hoping that Isilme's inspiration and the natural strength of his borrowed form combine to pierce the defenses of his enemies. He throws the spear that the babau was carrying to the ground, as he doesn't know exactly how to use it.
Xanderghul rips into the fallen babau in front of him, though the worst of what he does simply heals back up as if he had done nothing at all.
Out of his line of sight, a cultist fires two arrows at Ary, while she is still distracted by Xanderghul. Despite her enormous size, Hinagiku reacts just in time, pulling her out of the way and allowing the arrow to fly harmlessly past.
Ayavah is up!
Ayavah watches as the cultists and demons seem to fall one after another. Eventually, she raised a hand and fired off another shower of blue force missiles, aiming for the weakest looking babau, hoping to make it vulnerable.
The babau stands up and thrusts its polearm up at Ary, only to nearly break it in half when she raises her shield to deflect the blow, while the one next to it stabs up at Hinagiku repeatedly to no avail.
Round 5!
Hinagiku, Isilme, Ehren, Ary, Anevia, and Valaria are up!
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Ehren's motes of light zip through the air before coalescing over the body of one of the fallen cultists, forming the softly glowing silhouette of some quadrupedal beast. The light quickly fades, revealing a blast from the past - a dire badger, in all its starlit glory. The creature was positively enormous by badger standards, but next to Ary, it could pass for a house pet.
For a second the badger sniffs at the air, its nose twitching. With a snarl however, it abruptly starts to tear into the nearby cultist with its sharp maw and large, shovel-like claws.
In the meantime, Ehren scoops his glowing rock back up and pushes forward. He figured that Ary would have an easier time carrying Xanderghul around, but he was prepared to drag the wizard across the ground if he had to.
Hinagiku, Isilme, Ary, Anevia, and Valaria are up!
With their enemies progressively falling around them, Val hurries to keep in the fight, wanting this to be over with as fast as possible. Her knife lashes out and cuts across the babau's body.
Perplexed by a random babau's claim yet reassured by Ayavah, Hinagiku let's the complexities of magic seep into her calm inner ocean to be drowned. Fully focusing on what she understands, the monk presses on the attacks on the onis. One, two, and three strikes, hands curled into a fist, hit the creature in the ribs, sternum and jaw.