Xanderghul is up!
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Xanderghul rushes to the fore of the group. If darkness was employed, then his merely human compatriots would be unable to see, meaning that he must leap into action! He rushes to the fore of the group and steps past his poor, befuddled human Commander before calling upon his powers of shadow and evocation. Reciting words of duplication and sameness, Xanderghul conjures a rippling lasso of tornado-force winds that he lashes into as many babaus as he possibly can. With a crack, the winds slam into the room, scattering debris only slightly as the psychic magic attempts to convince the body to slam itself into the floor.
Once dispatched, the starknife wastes no time, leaping straight to Valaria's target and inflicting injury... but then the light simply goes out, immersing the room in darkness. She and Xanderghul can see the tornado fly through the room, simply washing through two of the more resilient demons, while a third leaps out of the way. The fourth, slowest one, is knocked over entirely.
Before Hinagiku can even reach the room, the room is completely filled with supernatural darkness. It is so deep and oppressive, that not even Radiance's golden light can penetrate it.
Hinagiku is up!
After quickly looking at their rear, Hinagiku cranes her neck to see what caused the group to stop. She gets a glimpse of the room before the light is snuffed out by the oni's evil essence.
"Understood Ary, I have our back." she then simply responds to the commanders order.
Shifting her wait, she widens her feet and brings one arm above her head and one at the height of her waist, palms opened and ready to strike.
As one particularly stupid babau suddenly appears behind Ary and Valaria, another dashes through the darkness to whip in a quick strike against the archmage in front with its spear.
Ehren is up!
Ehren makes his way through the narrow passageway towards the front of the group, bringing with him the daylight emitted by his staff. Right away, he comes face to face with one of the babau demons. There is little he could do to harm it without a cold iron weapon, but fortunately, it is already right next to two perfectly capable warriors.
Brandishing his rod with both hands, Ehren jabs it at the murder demon repeatedly, more an attempt at distraction than anything.
Ary guards Ehren's approach down the hallway from the babau ahead of him. As he moves, light glimmering off his staff enters the next room, shining even through the babau's magical darkness. But just as soon as the light trickles into the room, it is snuffed out!
Another babau runs forwards to accost the archmage with a series of quick jabs, while another two simply vanish. Where did they go?
Hinagiku is left in the rearguard, in the darkness... though she can see the way ahead of her, thanks to Radiance's golden light.
Thanks to your keen elven eyes, you can see a babau appear in the darkness right in front of Hinagiku!
You can hear something suddenly move ahead of you that was not there a moment ago. Your nose wrinkles with the smell of caustic acid... you can tell a babau is right in front of you in the darkness, though you cannot see it.
Hinagiku, Ary, and Valaria are up!
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"There is one in the rear." Hinagiku softly whispers through the spell. And, hoping to have surprised the babau, Hinagiku flattens her back to the wall then abruptly slips to the ground, legs sweeping, to try and trip it, before getting back up right next to where Isilme was.
"I have your back now. But, it is still standing." she finishes whispering, not even breaking a sweat after such a quick and demanding maneuver.
Hinagiku does not come into contact with the demon in the darkness. She comes back into view as she runs back into Radiance's light.
Round 250!
Ary and Valaria are up!
Ary immediately spins as the Murder Demon appears, whipping Faith around in an attempt to slam it into the wall, before thrusting straight towards the creature with Radiance. "Ah, right. Dispel." Ary says, pursing her lips as she whips her blade to the side just as her strike bites into the creature. "Don't forget to safeguard your weapons against the creature's acid." Ary says, casually fwipping what little had stuck to her blade into the nearby wall, golden motes flowing from Faith into her bicep and shoulder, relieving some of the strain from having borne the brunt of the Balbans' earlier rampages.
"Are you safe back there, Daisy?" she adds, unable to reach her companion.
"It is still in the dim... light would be appreciated." she calmly yet quickly repries, waiting expectantly for a surprise attack from the dark.
Undaunted by the darkness pressing in on them, Ary lets Radiance fly, and so it carries her deadly intent unerringly to the demon behind of her. The babau shrieks and tries to scamper out of the way on the ground, only to have the flat side of the blade catch it across the head, stunning it for just a moment...
Valaria is up!
Val spins around as the babau appears behind them and Ary batters the creature into submission, leaving it prone on the ground. She raises her knife and slams the blade down twice.
The babau that was toppled over by Xanderghul's spell stands up, and then vanishes.
The babau appears in the hallway behind you!
Suddenly, the light from Radiance and from mounted torch above the fallen babau goes out, plunging the heroes in darkness. Only Valaria and Xanderghul can see at all, albeit only in murky black and white.
Xanderghul and Isilme are up!
With the entire hall cloaked in darkness--a drawback of assuming elven form--Isilme's instincts take over. Her form shifts subtly from that of an elf to one of their subterranean relatives, and within moments her eyes adjust to the light (or lack-thereof).
Seeing little way for her to help directly in combat at the moment, she instead works to turn the battle's tide further in their favor. "Cloaked in darkness, afraid to meet // your foes head on, lest they defeat // you pathetic fiends. 'To the Abyss with you!' I repeat."
Isilme calls out to the cowardly demons, taunting them and reminding them of the stakes when they lose.
"One just moved behind us again! Watch your backs!"
Xanderghul is up!
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Xanderghul is vaguely insulted by having been stabbed. Who did these babaus think they were, to stab his noble figure? They would have to be shown the price for things like that. "Val, mind stepping in front here?" he casually asks over his shoulder. Then, he reaches into his spell pouch for a second handful of multicolored sand and tosses it into the crowd of babaus in front of him. As it leaves his hand, it turns into a flash of intense, rainbow-colored light that washes over three of the babaus.
As the rainbow light bursts from his hands, time slows for Xanderghul. He uses the opportunity to calculate the flat plane that includes the most contact with the eyes of all three babaus, and when he casts his spell he concentrates the power towards the babaus' eyes.
Three babaus are left reeling from the explosion of colored lights. Another one, further away, rushes past the other dazed demons, and swipes Xanderghul's face and neck in a wide arc of its razor-sharp claws.
Now that you are able to see in the dark once again, you can see yet another babau creeping up the tunnel at Hinagiku!
Ehren is up!
Perhaps Lann should have come along after all, Ehren thinks humorlessly as his light spell is snuffed out, leaving him in pitch blackness. Hearing Hinagiku's request, he momentarily considers reaching for his daylight wand again but quickly decides against it. With the babaus' ability to dispel magic at will, doing so would just be a waste.
Instead, he briefly concentrates and shifts into his favored combat form. Through his emerald eyes he can see once more, albeit in shades of gray. Now able to see the demon Valaria warned them of, he takes a single step forward.
"There is not much room to work with here," he observes, stating the obvious. "We need to push through."
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 22, Cha 12
AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+1 deflection, +2 Dex, +6 natural)
CMD 23
Feat Power Attack
A thrust that begins high overhead, dives down at the blinded Hinagiku and hits hard, sending shooting pain through her clavicle. The pulsing pain lingers even after it withdraws, sending tingling waves of sensation down her left arm.
You can see another babau charge down the hallway at Hinagiku, but it trips and falls on a piece of rubble. It scrambles back to its feet.
Another reckless babau appears amidst the heroes!
Hinagiku, Ary, and Valaria are up!
"Take care, Hinagiku, there are two Babaus in front of you now. Give me a moment and I will do my best to remedy the situation," Isilme says to the monk as the Babaus take advantage of their spears to gang up on her in the small hallway.
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As the point of the babau's spear pierces her skin and the pain shoots through her body, there is a pause, as if everything had slowed down. And in this pause, as Hinagiku's eyes are closed and her mind focused on the flow of her mother's spirit through the world, she sees it clearly. The spear, it's path, the danger. In this moment when her sight transcends the physical world, Hinagiku has just enough time to twist out of the spears path.
She is quick to recover and launches in a quick attack against the closest babau. But her careful kicks and punches only hits the air as she is unable to pinpoint the creature.
"Thank you mrs. Isilme." she replies, grateful to know that she is defending against two foes.
Ary slowly inhales as the first Babau falls at the hands of Valaria - he'd still need to be killed, of course, but he was at least out of the fight. The inhalation of sulfur and the shift in air pressure alerts her to the newest babau arrival, causing her to pivot once more, and drive her shield into the newcomer. She opens her eyes as wide as she can to try to enable her eyes to pierce whatever darkness they can, as she relentlessly strikes in the direction of her newest foe.
Hinagiku manages to knock the babau off of its feet, despite being unable to see it at all. But the wily demon slides out of the way, leaving the monk only striking the ground instead of the demon itself. As she makes her final strike, the demon shoves her away from it as hard as it can.
Ary's shield slips around the demon's attempt at deflection (purely by chance, as she couldn't see the demon at all) and lodges its cold iron spikes decisively in its body. Feeling its weight impaled upon the shield, she presses forward, slamming it hard into the wall with all her strength. The demon falls to the ground, not quick enough to evade her next strike. The crusader commander lunges once more, too quick to be stopped. A tremor is sent up her arm as she realizes her blade is
blunted and stopped dead in the wall itself, having missed the demon entirely.
Round 251!
Valaria is up!
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"You know, I remember fighting a whole horde of these things being a lot harder." Val spins and keeps delivering short thrusts to the fallen babaus as they pile up around the team.
After a misstep, Valaria doggedly lines up her next thrust with grit and determination, letting it fly only when she is certain of delivering a solid hit. She can hear the other babau behind of her snarl briefly before inching closer to her within the pitch-black tunnel. The heroes are surrounded by demons!
Xanderghul and Isilme are up!
Intent on taking advantage of her vision and the fact that illusions were visible even within the dark, Isilme extracts her scroll of silent image and concentrates on placing it within her ring. Unfortunately the distraction of the fight prevents her from successfully placing the spell within the ring.
Xanderghul is up!
"They do just keep coming though," Val adds in a deadpan as she manages to avoid hurting herself trying to finish off the babau.
"I do not remember a time when fighting a horde of these was easier," says Xanderghul, really wanting to back up against the four babaus in front of him but not having any space to do so. Knowing that he has to do something about his sighted allies' ability to locate the babaus and he also has to prevent them from stabbing him to death, Xanderghul once again channels the power of the Plane of Shadows for a quasireal illusion spell. This time, he conjures the powers of raw creation and creates a dim burst of glittery motes. The psychic nature of the spell makes the burst appear to be much brighter than it actually is, and it threatens to overwhelm the sight of the four babaus in front of him.
Afterwards, the glittery flakes stick to the babaus, outlining them in the darkness and making them easier to see. As he prepares for his next move, Xanderghul pulls his crossbow from its sling on his hip.
Xanderghul's spell coats the babaus in glittery sparkles, but without light to make them glitter, they aren't any more visible than before. Regardless, most of them get the stuff in their eyes and are unable to see. This doesn't stop the babau closest to Xanderghul from becoming very angry and leaping at him blindly. It manages to barrel right into him with a thunk, cutting into him with a whirling mess of claws and teeth.
Ehren is up!
"Hold on, Xanderghul," Ehren says, turning an eye to the small horde of babaus standing in front of the wizard. On account of his darkvision, he could see the muted sparkles they are now coated with... sort of. Regardless, the way they were grouped together made them a ripe target for an explosive spell, provided he did not accidentally blow up the wizard in the process. A task that would be slightly more difficult than usual, on account of the murder demon currently breathing down his neck.
Borrowing a small fraction of the ley's power, Ehren focuses his magic and visualizes the spell in his mind. Unfortunately, the demon right in front of him is a tad too distracting. Just as he is about to manifest elemental fire, he loses his focus; the spell is lost, and his connection to the ley is broken. Annoyance flashes across the druid's face. "Just a little longer."
The babau in front of Valaria stands back up and lunges at Valaria, but the tiefling sees him coming. She sweeps down at the last second, catching the babau off guard and knocking it back on his back once again.
Meanwhile, one of the babaus notices Isilme change form, and attempts to dispel the magic that made it so, but finds its own abilities wanting. The babau in front of it lunges at Hinagiku, but she hears it growl before it does so and steps out of the way.
Hinagiku, Ary, and Valaria are up!
"Is everything alright in the front?" Hinagiku says, concerned about ups and downs of the easy/hard babau discussion going on. And, simultaneously, she cautiously catches the striking claw of the babau facing her, twists it to force her adversary down, before kicking it in the abdomen.
Hinagiku's foot slips daintily around the fallen demon's attempt at deflection, and lodges itself decisively in its abdomen. It grunts and rolls out of the way in time to avoid her next strike.
Round 252!
Ary and Valaria are up!
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As Ary's thrust bites directly into stone, her cool demeanor begins to break slightly, her heart rate increasing. More strikes hitting stone after hers. In the years since falling into the caves below Kenabres, she still hadn't quite recovered. Darkness, was fear. The enemy could see and she could not, the things that hunted had a distinct advantage - and the Babau's advantage was greater in the darkness than that of most demons. The fear is something she's mostly able to keep in check until Valaria brings up the numbers - a total unknown - and Ehren promises to save Xanderghul. She could tell he'd driven deeper into their foes simply by his movements, his intonations, but she was completely blind to the situation. The flood breaks over her as Ehren's calm tone shifts. "Drive them back, everyone. Bring them down, one by one as best you can." she calls out, trying to hide the small tremble in her voice, but it's that very tremble that carries the pathos that would push the team to exceed their expectations.
She listens closely as the Babau begins to stand and then falls to the ground once more, immediately driving forward with her weapons once more, prioritizing her sword strikes over faith, given that the target she was aware of was still grounded. But her strike finds no prize. She closes her eyes entirely, in an effort to make the situation seem just a little more natural. She hears another thud behind her, uncertain of whom had fallen precisely, but hopes that it is Hinagiku's prey. "I've no idea." Ary continues as she arcs Radiance once more, again striking nothing but air.
Valaria is up!
Just as Ehren feels the ley energy he borrowed for his failed spell begin to recede into the earth, the sound of Ary's voice reach him. Not so much the words themselves, but the feeling behind them; clearly, now is not the time to fail. It only takes an instant for the archdruid to recenter himself.
"...there," Ehren says abruptly, as he finishes the spell's somatic components. With only the slightest delay, the roar of white-hot flames could be heard as they consume the murder demons.
A column of flame surrounds the babaus, briefly bringing light to the dark catacombs, and they shriek as they are caught up in it after being caught unawares... only one demon on the periphery is able to evade most of the white-hot flames. When it vanishes, it is clear that it is only due to their innate abyssal resistance to heat and flame that they could have survived such a thing... barely.
Valaria is up!
Valaria whirls to cut her starknives deeply into the babau abdomen as he falls to the ground, then quickly drives the blade into him twice while he is unable to scramble away from her. Meanwhile, the babau behind of her stabs past her while she isn't paying attention. The red-skinned demon quivers, eagerly anticipating the violent conclusion of its spear into Ary's flesh. It finds prize... once. Now aware of its presence, she dodges out of the way of the second strike. Frustrated, the babau switches to focusing on Valaria, but at the last possible moment, her starknife flicks up, forcing its gnashing jaws away from her exposed neck.
Xanderghul and Isilme are up!
Tiring of being up-close-and-personal with a horde of demons, and tiring of getting stabbed, Xanderghul takes a step backwards towards Valaria. As he does so, he simultaneously channels shadowstuff, and that single step is made through the twisting alleyways of the Plane of Shadow. He disappears for a moment and re-appears near Ehren and Ary, his form coalescing from shadows.
On her second attempt, Isilme successfully prepares the spell she'd dug out into the ring and quickly stows the scroll. "I should have a solution to our problem shortly," she says.
Xanderghul vanishes and reappears next to Ehren and Ary. The babau that was in front of him is unable to tell that he was gone, since it still had glitter in its eyes. It claws futilely at the air in front of it. When its claws find no purchase, it snarls and rubs its eyes clear of the golden glitter.
Ehren is up!
"One of you two always has some kind of answer in your magic bag," Val mutters as the babau's acid blood hisses and splatters on the floor as she stabs another one. "Just make sure it's a big solution, because I think there are more of them here than I thought."
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His spell cast, Ehren curls his twiddly fingers back into a stony fist and throws a clumsy punch at the murder demon in his face. Clearly, there is a subtle (or not so subtle) art to smashing things that he just isn't privy to.
As the babau tries to stagger to its feet, it lunges once at Valaria, but she parries its strike like it is hitting a wall. It almost falls back down again! But there isn't time to take a breath, as yet another demon disappears and then reappears behind Valaria. She turns to face it, but just as she does, a babau comes barreling down the tunnel past the others to leap onto her back. She quickly tosses the creature off of her before it can sink its teeth into her shoulder.
Meanwhile, the babau seemingly intent in dispelling Isilme's spell, focuses much harder than it had ever had in its entire murder-demon life, and manages to destroy one of her runic enhancements instead. But in the end it had still failed to do what it had hoped to, and it stamps its feet in rage.
The babau in front of it stands back up and leaps at Hinagiku again. Unable to see, her ears twitch towards the sounds of its movements, and she dodges the demon just in the nick of time.
Hinagiku, Ary and Valaria are up!
As another babau bounces back to its feet, Val swings out again, sending another splatter of demonic ichor flying across the ground. "Stay down this time." She twirls, her knife a deadly blur in the air as she keeps cutting and thrusting, taking the demons one at a time as they come at the party from all angles.
With a casual twist of her wrist, Valaria carves a notch out of the demon as it tries to lunge at her from the ground.
Hinagiku and Ary are up!
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"How many are left? How-" Ary calls to her allies as those who could see continue to leave those who couldn't in the figurative dark, before pausing with a surprised gasp as the spear bites into her flesh. She swings her shield arm towards it, hoping to grab hold of the haft to learn where the demon is, but only deflects the second thrust by sheer luck. "How is everyone?" she continues, as her ears twitch, trying to locate the sounds of movement. Her sword bites into the ground near the downed foe once more, as she sweeps for where she feels his legs should be, then brings Faith forward - and over his head. Finally, her third strike finds her enemy, as she levels a deadly overhand chop - poor form, full of frustration, but nonetheless deadly. "Is there anything we can do about this darkness?" she calls to the others. "Please hurry, Isilme." she adds, tersely.