Radiance 1 (Inspired, Blessed, Prayer, DW): 1d20 + 16 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (6) + 16 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 = 24
Radiance 2 (Inspired, Blessed, Prayer, DW): 1d20 + 11 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 11 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 = 33
Radiance 2 Confirm (Inspired, Blessed, Prayer, DW): 1d20 + 11 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (15) + 11 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 = 28
Radiance F (Inspired, Blessed, Prayer, DW): 1d20 + 16 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (3) + 16 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 = 21
Faith Attack 1 (Inspired, Blessed, Prayer, DW): 1d20 + 16 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (17) + 16 + 2 + 1 + 1 - 2 = 35
Ary unrelentingly cleaves into the dwarven rear-guard, crashing into them as soon as they begin to draw their weapons, and carving down the nearest foes, only to surge forward and continue her assault, covering the ground nearby in duergar blood in defense of freeing the slaves. "That's the hope!" Ary calls back, hoping they might start moving to safety. There were a lot of things they could be doing to speed things along, but she wasn't certain how... pressing they were just now.
Anevia was beginning to feel like perhaps her luck was running thin, and so after firing another silver longsword into the infantry, she dives into the wall of slaves, knowing she'd be a lot safer amidst them than even at Ary's side. "Oh, hey Javyn." she says quietly as she stops beside the tiny underfolk. "Got any good spells prepared today?"
Hinagiku, Ehren, Lann and Xanderghul are up!
Compounding the damage being dealt to the duergar troop by the ball lightning and the damage dealt to the other troop by monkeys, Xanderghul casts another spell and summons a burst of holy energy among the duergar, starting in the back corner.
Ehren lowers his fist, finding that the dwarf is no longer a threat thanks to Isilme's spell. Even if he did manage to regain his senses, Hinagiku would have no problem subduing him nonlethally. He nods to the two of them wordlessly before turning to run down the tunnel, sped by his magic as well as Isilme's. With a glance, he sees that the first duergar troop he comes across already has its hands full. Leaving the underfolk, monkeys, and themselves to their work, Ehren passes them by. He continues to run until he reaches the second group of slaves, as well a second, larger duergar troop. With a stony grimace, he suddenly appreciates Old Ironfin's contribution to their cause all the more.
"Keep your wits about you!" Ehren says to the slaves, motes of ley energy already starting to swirl around his arms. Bigger isn't always better, but a situation like this one called for some heavy ordnance. "It is too early to celebrate just yet."
As he begins to clash with the duergar, Lann is bewildered to find that several of them are preoccupied with fighting one another, as well as a small army of tiny primates. Sadly, a few too many of them were still swinging axes in his general direction for him to take any amusement in the spectacle. After ducking below a near hit he engages the enemy troop, swinging his blade in broad arcs.
"Ary. Do you need my help back there? Here, the follower of Angrad is now unarmed." Hinagiku asks, eyes riveted on the laughing dwarf who was now just flailing around with one arm and clutching his side with the other.
There was not much time, but this one might still be a threat.
"Apologies Mr. Dornarnus."
Closing her eyes, the monk focuses past the dwarf, into the ground supporting him, and at the faint golden threads she could sense. Extending an arm in their direction, fingers smoothly coming in a clutching position, Hinagiku pulls on the thread, causing one of Dornarnus arm to be raised from the ground and fall into her grasp. Quickly and gracefully, she unfolds the dwarf's hand into a painful position; palm facing the ceiling, hand before bending his arm behind his back.
Hinagiku grabs hold of the laughing dwarf's gauntlet and wrenches his hand upwards and away, as Isilme wrests his greataxe away from him with a quick tug. This seems to bring the man to his senses. He stops laughing, and instead begins to thrash against Hinagiku's grasp.
Hinagiku doesn't understand the dwarf's language, but she carefully watches the dwarf's facial mannerisms. His eyes are distant, and he lacks expression, contrasted with the expressively scowling or frightened faces of the duergar behind him. How would such a dis-passionate creature come to worship Angradd, the fiery dwarven god of war? That doesn't add up. She doesn't feel that this dwarf is truly in control of his actions.
Further up the tunnel, only a few dwarves remain from the proud infantry troops, whether cut down by Ary, disemboweled by the enormous landshark, or electrocuted by Xanderghul's magic. Javyn shakes his head at Anevia, holding up his manacled hands. "Can you help us free of our restraints? We will need to move quickly, before Thulmaga returns..."
A dwarf near Javyn cries out, "Please, don't kill our captain! He's been ensorcelled by that foul grey-skinned witch!"
But the heroes cannot sit and rest just yet. One giant duergar remains, still focused on trying to break Ary down. Another duergar charges into the fray atop a giant beetle. His dwarven war axe finds purchase, slamming straight into her armor. Her family armor doesn't so much as scratch, but the collision leaves her side purpled and her ribs with hairline fractures. It's hard to breathe, and she's knocked off kilter for just a moment...
Round 7!
Hinagiku and Isilme are up!
Isilme heads quickly with the captain's axe towards and past the first group of slaves, calling back to Hinagiku as she goes, "Make sure the captain is out cold!"
When she reaches the slaves she picks the largest, strongest looking dwarf of the second group of slaves and hands them the axe. "Free yourself and as many others as you can quickly, help the Underfolk with this group and get to the fort quickly," she says, pointing down where they'd come from. For those who don't understand common, she repeats herself quickly in dwarven as well.
Another duergar appears, attempting to cut down Old Ironfin, but finds his race's handiwork too skilled - his axes merely dull against the adamanantine plates nailed directly into the old monster's hide.
Hinagiku, Ary, and Ehren are up!
Ary dips and dodges the blades of her foes as best she can, but ultimately steps right into the devastating attack of the incoming Duergar as she avoids still another blow. She gasps in pain, an action that sends white-hot needles shooting through her side. Clearly, she's winded now and the dodges slow. She starts to call back to the others but she just coughs blood. Yeah... she'd overextended.
"Uh... maybe in a sec?" Anevia says to Javyn as she sees the dwarf slam directly into Ary with an amount of force that would have sent a human toppling off a hi- she squeezes her eyes shut for a moment and does her best to refocus. "K, gotta get boss out." she mutters as she keeps her eyes on the dwarf that had just charged her captain-commander-lord.
Ary was stuck between a rock and a hard place... many rocks, and several hard places, really. If she retreated, the prisoners would almost assuredly perish in the wake of her retreat... and their foes might even grow stronger if they received reinforcements. She'd just have to trust her friends to arrive soon and help to extract her... and so she continues to lay into her foes, before slipping backward a few steps as she lashes out at the duergar's weapon-arm.
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As Ehren reaches the end of his incantation, the starlights around his arms take on a bluish hue and spin faster than ever before, imbued with a fraction of his mythic power. Then, tossing his arms outward, he casts the motes of ley over the heads of the slaves and across the cavern. In midair, they coalesce into a single glowing form, before landing with a tremendous thud. The light fades, unveiling a rather large boulder that quickly unfolds into a humanoid shape. Towering even over the enlarged duergar, the slate-gray earth elemental appraises its surroundings with glowing sapphire eyes.
"Déan dochar d’aon cheann de na dumhcha liath a thagann inár dtreo. Cosain na príosúnaigh," Ehren commands, watching as Ary tackles numerous giant duergar singlehandedly. The monolithic elemental merely nods in affirmation, its stillness concealing the power it has been granted.
With speed that might be unexpected of a creature so large and heavy, the earth elemental assails the nearest duergar with a tremendous punch, immediately following it with another, and then another.
"Everyone, Mr. Dornarnus here is under the control of some evil magic. Can anyone help him get rid of this influence? He might be helpful in the fight." Hinagiku responds as quickly as she can to Isilme, thinking she might have exactly what the dwarf needs. But it is too late, as the azata is already at the front.
In the meanwhile, the monk presses her knee against the dwarf's back to stop his struggle and maintain him in place.
Hinagiku pins the struggling dwarf to the ground with her bodyweight. She can't see much of anything that is going on - it seems the heroes have all moved forwards without her, though she can glimpse the crackling energy of Xanderghul's magic far ahead. Out, further into the darkness, at the front of the line is Ary, facing off against a duergar cavalryman and the lone remaining infantry. Knowing the giant duergar was close to death, she first brings him down with a strike that pierces under his armor. The giant falls to the ground with a thud, and the rider next to him bares his rotten teeth at her in a leer, striking haphazardly with his axe again and again. She ducks back, narrowly missing his swings and waiting for the perfect opportunity. Once she sees it, she jabs out at his arm to cause him to drop his weapon. He cries out in pain and alarm, and Ary is able to seize the opportunity to strike him once with [i]Radiance[/b], its arc flashing across his face.
Another rider atop a beetle comes scrambling out of the dark. His beetle carefully scampers over the bodies of the fallen, aimed straight at the newly formed elemental. He swings twice at it with his waraxe, his first strike taking off a chunk of his form like a sculptor working a chisel. The elemental would not chance him to try that again, clapping its enormous stony fists together with such force the duergar is driven back, just a step.
Valaria is up!
Val darts forward as the duergar keep pouring in. Thankfully, it seems that Old Ironfin is just as much of a distraction as they'd hoped. She just hopes that the tortured old bulette doesn't tear through the slaves in the process of tearing through the slavers. "Not my specialty, but I can keep the pressure on if someone wants to take care of that," Val sends in response to Daisy's warning before she sends her knife careening toward the duergar engaged with Ehren's elemental.
Valaria's starknife slices through the duergar's shoulder, before flickering out of existence and reappearing back in her open hand. But the duergar just keep coming! Another beetle rider rushes into the fray, its many legs scampering slowly over the tunnel now strewn with duergar carcasses. Its rider snarls at the slaves as he pushes through. "Inbau doeb d'l'i'dol, dosrothen, ka dos zhaun vel'bol's bwael whol dos!"
"Get out of the way, you mangy slaves, if you know what's good for you!"
The mounted duergar swings his axe twice, cutting down one of the Underfolk slaves that attempts to slow down his mount with his own chains. He hunches over, limp and dead, his corpse still chained to the slave gang. "No! Stop!" cries out a female voice amongst the Underfolk.
You suddenly feel the throes of powerful magic creep upon your mind! Your muscles start to seize up and you cannot move!
The magic being invoked is Command, Greater.
Anevia, Lann, and Xanderghul are up!
For a moment the magic washing over her begins to slow her movements, as if she was bearing a terrible weight. Mustering her resolve, she forces her way through its effects breaking its hold upon her.
"There's an enchanter amidst the prisoners!" Ary cries as the enchantress's magic runs off her like so much water. Anevia wasn't so lucky, however, as she stands absolutely stock still. "Push through it!" Ary calls out, attempting to bolster her allies against the spell. "Someone get the Underfolk to withdraw! I need that wall up!" Anevia doesn't even begin to move. And she hadn't even been trapped in an action pose.
Ehren might have succumbed to the compulsion, if not for the subtle magic within the medal bestowed upon him by the queen years ago. After a second of quietly struggling against the spell, he manages to shake it off entirely.
"I can put a wall of stone up, but we need to move further back. This cavern is too wide," Ehren whispers while eyeing the prisoners, wondering if Ary is right.
Still embroiled in combat with the duergar, Lann misses the finer details of the conflict further ahead.
"Udos henotep inbal mina!" he calls out to the Gunduara encouragingly, as he continues to dodge and block the numerous attacks coming his way. Emboldened by the abundance of magic affecting him and the presence of his fellow underfolk, he unleashes a series of powerful swings at opportune targets.
With a wave of his hand and a mental push, Xanderghul's two buzzing lightning balls zip over towards one of the duergar cavalrymen - they electrocute both the soldier and his mount. With his other hand, Xanderghul gesticulates the somatic components for shadow enchantment. He then points at a second duergar cavalryman, filling the dwarf's mind with illusory boredom. With luck, both soldiers would be immediately disabled. "Friends," he calls back to the group, "How is the battle going in the rearguard? Are we free to begin moving back?"
Val winces as she panicked shout nearly freezes her in place. Her body sparks with divine energy as she forces the compulsion back and rights herself in the air. "Sooner would be better," Val agrees as she adjusts her flight.
More and more duergar emerge from the darkness, some mounted utop beetles others enlarged to the size of giants: will the nightmarish hordes of duergar slavers ever come to an end? Near the rear of the group, the ensorcelled dwarf manages to break free of Hinagiku's hold on him with a roar and a mighty show of strength. He pushes himself back to his feet, but the Iroran monk strikes him once as he tries to get back up, then grabs hold of his arm and twists it out of reach yet again.
Further ahead, Hinagiku can see the Gunduara tribesmen and Lann cut down the remainder of the infantry. Only one duergar from that group remains, screaming incoherently as he swings his axe blindly in a circle around him, a mass of writhing monkeys swarming over his face, back, and shoulders.
"Doer, abbilen! Udos z'klaen ke'shaa ulu sreen'aur, gaer udos shlu'ta duul'sso dos d'dosst!" cries out Grila encouragingly. She doesn't know that she is repeating Isilme's words, already heard by the captured dwarves and the odd Underfolk in their midst that understands Taldane.
"Come, friends! We must retreat to safety, there we can free you of your restraints!"
The enslaved respond to Isilme's urgings, and start to move forwards down the tunnel, eager for the promised safety of the dwarven fortification ahead. But at the front of the battle, those slaves that formerly made up the rear of the slave train find themselves trapped and surrounded by duergar beetle-riders. They know any attempts to flee would result in them being cut down by their axes, and so they hold their ground. They try in vain to bring down the duergar with their chains and fists, but in the process another two slaves are brutally killed by the slavers trying to get past them and at their saviors. Old Ironfin launches himself at yet another duergar, ripping him and his mount limb from limb, while the duergar focused on Ary draws another weapon. It is clear he is more comfortable with an axe than a hammer, but he still manages to clock her across the face, leaving her jaw swollen and her ears ringing... the force of his blow wildly disproportionate to the actual size of his hammer. He laughs, clearly feeling that he has gained the upper hand on the Sword-Knight. "Ha! Ba mhaith le drow beag a imirt? Is cuma cé hé do dhaidí, bogann tú mar aon eilimint eile, agus gearrfaidh mé síos thú mar cheann freisin!" he crows, as his steed unleashes a stream of acidic vomit right at her.
"Ha! An uppity little drow bastard wants to play? Doesn't matter who your daddy is, you move like any other elf, and I'll cut you down like one, too!"
Round 8!
Isilme, Ary and Ehren are up!
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Ehren glowers when he sees more duergar arrive, putting the lives of the last group of slaves in even further jeopardy. As confident as he is that they could fight them off, their objective here was to save lives. Looking at his elemental, he quickly issues another command. "Cosain na príosúnaigh!"
The earth elemental does not respond, focused entirely on the adversary standing before it. Taking its summoner's previous command literally, it ignores the beetle almost entirely, choosing instead to target its puny duergar rider. Its arms become a gray blur as it unleashes a wild flurry of pulverizing punches.
For his part, Ehren stops down, pressing a hand against the earthen ground. Earth magic has always been his specialty, but he has never attempted something quite like this before. One wrong move and he could inadvertently cause a cave-in, which would not end well for anyone present. Drawing on the power of the ley, as well as his own mythic potential, Ehren's eyes glow as he imposes his will on the earth itself. Behind the group of slaves, a large span of the cavern floor abruptly liquefies beneath the duergar's feet, creating a small lake of thick mud.
Seeing Anevia stop moving, and worrying that further spells might target her and others again, Isilme moves up quickly to her allies' aid. She quickly scribes the rune for freedom in the air before her, its magic washing over herself, Ary and Anevia and protecting them from magic that might restrain them. She immediately follows that by invoking Desna's protection directly upon herself and her allies, in a similar, but less spontaneous way to Ary ability to rally the group.
Ary dips away from the acidic spittle and straight into the hammer, being forced to weather both. Weather was the operative term, as all of the blows had begun to overwhelm her. Staying far enough forward to free the captured from the duergar forces had been successful... but it had only lead to still more arriving.
Worse, the slaves had done the opposite of what she'd suggested, committing to a fight that they were woefully incapable of winning. She needed them to disengage, lest they wind up like the paladins in Drezen... those who had lost their light in the darkness that the demons had impressed upon them, day in and day out. Worse, the language barrier made it impossible to even reach them. She begins to lash out at the nearest dwarf, and beginning to look for a way out when Isilme darts forward. With Isilme just behind her, she redoubles her effort on bringing down the nearest foes... starting with the dwarf and its mount. Her allies seemed to be focused on winning rather than retreating. As Isilme's magic fills her heart with still another surge, her worries about the present dangers reduce significantly.
Ary's blade arcs across the duergar's stomach - its keen edge slicing straight though his leather armor. She finishes off the rider in front of her at the same time as Ehren's elemental smashes apart the beetle in front of it. And then suddenly, all of the duergar riders behind of them are suddenly mired in a deep river of mud!
Valaria is up!
Val grits her teeth and sends a few more throws into the crowd of towering duergar surrounding the remaining group of slaves. They have to give the chained prisoners enough room to flee down the tunnel before they can withdraw. And time is running short as more and more of the gray dwarves just keep coming. "We're almost clear, keep them at bay just a bit longer!"
One of the mired duergar manages to maneuver his steed out of the mud, even as Valaria's starknife flashes past him and into the rider just behind him. He pushes himself past the panicked slaves, cutting yet another one down as he moves, knowing that if they tried to flee now they would have to drag the dead bodies of those still tethered to them along with them. "Waele rothen! Remos k'jakr! Orn tlu!"
"Stupid slaves! Remain still! Be straight!*"
"No! Stop!" cries out a female voice amongst the slaves, barely audible over the clacking of chains as the slaves struggle to stay away from his whirling axe.
You suddenly feel the throes of powerful magic creep upon your mind! Your muscles start to seize up and you cannot move!
Anevia, Lann, and Xanderghul are up!
Anevia lingers with her hand half-way into her belt pouch for several moments completely unable to move, forced to stare as the Duergar encroached upon them, and watching Ary desperately hammer at the nearest foes. Then a giant rock monster enters her periphery and she's forced to wonder if it's friend or foe... but then one of the duergar becomes little more than a stain on the floor, with his bug collapsed beneath him. Well, that was good. Oh, and Isilme was nearby... and she could move again. Huzzah! She was glad the crowd that she was trying to save didn't trample her during all of that nonsense.
It would seem that the goal had shifted back to 'save as many of the chain gang as they could'! Well, that was easy... a focused assault should be able to bring the enemies down a bit more quickly. Darkness snakes from her sleeve down an ordinary arrow to add a bit more bite as she redoubles her effort on bringing down those giving chase... firing straight into the crowd of prisoners to strike at the duergar atop his mount.
Having steeled his mind after the last attempt, Ehren has an easier time shaking off the compulsion magic this time.
"Do any of you see that enchanter?" he mutters, peering into the group of slaves in search of the shouting woman.
Lann smiles broadly when he sees Javyn, but knows that it is hardly the time for a heartfelt reunion. With another short battlecry he continues to clash with the duergar, eager to clear an escape route for the rest of the prisoners.
Xanderghul's body seizes up in the hold of the more powerful caster. Caught by surprise, he falls unceremoniously from the air to the cavern floor and strikes the hard rock, his body completely paralyzed.
All five floating fetchlings flop to the floor, while Anevia, still warded with Isilme's Elysian magic, is completely unaffected. She fires straight at the closest of the duergar, while another behind of him manages to slowly pull himself out of the mud. The rearmost cavalryman was not so lucky - all that is visible of Ironfin now is his fin, as he simply shoots straight across the mud and into the next drowning beetle. He drags him screaming, deeper into the the mud, until all that is left of him are bubbles and ripples on the surface.
Meanwhile, further back, Lann finishes off the last of the confused duergar. Javyn returns his smile, his ears perked up suddenly at finally having caught a glimpse of his friend.
"Ah, and here I was hoping you'd have gotten fatter!" Javyn teases. "Oh! And here's Alboras," he adds, as a small lizard scampers across the tunnel towards him. Only his motion betrays his presence, as his scaly hide perfectly matches the stone of the tunnel. He bends down to allow the lizard to crawl up his arm, then follows the other slaves and the Gunduara tribesmen as they continue to move down the tunnel. They catch up with Hinagiku, who now has the writhing dwarf pinned to the floor.
Alboras is the name of the "North Star", as it is commonly called in the Inner Sea. It is used for navigation.
"Oy, Dornarnus! Le do thoil as é!" calls out one of the enslaved dwarves, but the devotee of Angradd shows no signs of recognition on his face. The dwarf shakes his head, sadly. "Aye, no use trying to get through to him. She's got him good."
"Hey, Dornarnus! Please, snap out of it!"
You see through the illusion! There are two duergar, at the rear of the slave train, masquerading as slaves! One is a large, burly duergar wearing nothing but light leathers, and a completely bare chest. He has a shield on one arm, but is otherwise unarmed. The other is a female duergar, wearing a hooded cloak. She wields an iron staff, that is attached to her wrist with an iron manacle.
Round 9!
Isilme, Ehren, Ary, and Valaria are up!
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Despite Isilme's spell, Xanderghul does not resist the spell of the enemy caster.
Irritated by the second attempt to restrain her allies, Isilme quickly scans the area and spots two duergar hiding out amongst the slaves cloaked by an illusion. Focusing on the air above the duergar caster, she begins her own retort by way of spell. "That is quite rude," she calls out, "I'm afraid I will have to ask you to stop that!" With that she unleashes her spell, and illusioned duergar, along with the riders and slaves are bathed in absolute silence.
After denying them the ability to trouble her allies with spells any further, she singles them out. "Anevia, Val, target those two in back. The one on the right, the female, is a caster!"
Scrutinizing the group of slaves more carefully, Ehren quickly finds the two indicated by Isilme. Focusing his mind, he manages to peer through the veil that had been disguising them. Sneering at the underhanded tactic, the druid moves closer to his friends so that he has a better view of the incoming duergar. Pointing a stone finger down the tunnel, he draws the ley into his body and allows it to flow to his fingertip in its pure, undiluted form. There is a great crack of thunder as a bolt of white lightning erupts from his finger, lancing through everything and everyone before him.
Looking to the duergar who is busy culling the prisoners, the elemental approaches him and lays his big, strong hands on him.
"No..." Anevia says, unclear what 'on the left' meant in a group of some-twenty slaves, and unwilling to start shooting at all of the slaves on the left to find out. She does stand on her tippy-toes, though, trying to spot any odd-ones out, giving it a second go from a different angle. "Nothing but folks in chains, boss."
"Anevia, there's a horn in my backpack, grab it and blow. Then move by Xanderghul and Dornarnus. I think we're pretty set for getting people out if we focus." she calls across the cavern, knowing that in order for Anevia to continue to contribute, she would have to wade into the fray... and though the rogue had learned many new tricks, she didn't fancy the idea of Anevia standing within axe-range of a Duergar again. She would guard the honor of her fellows, both in thought and deed. "It should break the control on both; Xander has a stout mind."
As for herself, Ary wades forward into the fray, readying herself to topple each foe within her reach in order to save those around her from the encroaching darkness of Droskar... and at the same time, enters Isilme's zone of silence.
Like Xanderghul, Valaria is gripped by the enchantress' magic, and finds herself unable to move, though mentally able to maintain herself aloft in the air. Ehren's elemental slams his fist twice into the nearest beetle rider. He reels back, dazed, and Ary quickly decapitates him across the blade of Radiance. At the same time, Ehren launches a stream of ley energy down the tunnel, completely obliterating one beetle and throwing its rider crashing onto the hard, stone floor. The enormous duergar behind of it, however, is faster than it looks, side-stepping the worst of it as it flies by.
While Ary is busy fending off the angered beetle in front of her with her shield, one of the slaves marches forwards and punches her in the face, right between the eyes!
The male duergar pushes forwards, while the female duergar stays in the back, shifting her weight from leg to leg as she eyes each of her enemies in turn with a wry smile on her face. When he arrives at the front of the slave train, he launches an enormous fist at Ary, clocking her right between the eyes!
Anevia sees the female duergar emerge from the group of slaves, and then carefully move forwards, climbing over the bodies of the enormous dead beetles, and is now just ten feet away from Rocky. Also, the sneaky not-a-slave they must have been talking about is probably the one that ran forwards and punched your boss in the face.
The female duergar is casting mislead.
Anevia, Lann, and Xanderghul are up!
"Uh... boss?" Anevia whispers into the spell, "The twiddlefingers is a ways behind Ehren, trying to be invisible..." she pauses as she looks to Ary as the woman begins to slump to the ground... "Boss?" she asks, louder.
She darts obediently to Ary's side... getting Xanderghul back up and functioning, maybe swing by Val, too? She didn't know how this thing worked... yeah, she could zig and zag and maybe get everyone. She digs through the bag in the hopes of retrieving the horn... why would Ary have it inside the bag, the goof...
Seeing Ary start to go down, Isilme gathers up the remnants of the song she was shielding Ary and Anevia with and empowers it with both magic and divine power. "Your fight isn't over, Ary! You can overcome the magic!" The mixture of arcane and divine magic washes over her, the energy driving her to keep fighting against the magic.
Ary staggers back to her feet, eyes slightly crossed, even as Anevia digs inside of her pack. "'snot magic. Just a mean right hook." she slurs out as she tries to get her bearings back.
Xanderghul focuses on his breathing. Breathing is an act that can be performed consciously and unconsciously, and it's something that he continues to do while the magic has taken over his body. He focuses carefully, bringing his control of his breathing from unconscious to conscious. It doesn't take long for him to remember how to control the rest of his body after that.
He shakes it out as the enchantment leaves him, then looks up to find that the battle has progressed remarkably in the few seconds that his face was towards the floor. "Are we winning?" he calls.
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"We are certainly not winning decisively enough for you to take a nap! There are two duergar amongst the slaves, the one in front of Ary and one there in the back. She is attempting to cast mislead to escape!" Isilme again points out the caster in back to the others.
"You could use a little fattening up yourself. You're all skin and bones!" Lann replies with a broad grin, which falls off his face all too quickly. It was a bit too early to celebrate. "We will have to catch up later, friend. You go on ahead!"
As Javyn and the rest of the slaves follow the Gunduara tribesmen, Lann instead heads in the direction of his friends, hopping over the small mound of duergar corpses as he moves along. He stops at the elemental's side, recognizing Ehren's handiwork.
Hearing her companion's call to fall back to the fort, Hinagiku uses her hold on the dwarf to spin him around. Tripping him with one foot, she forces forward while he struggles to retain his balance.
Meanwhile, much further up the tunnel, the duergar continue to try and struggle out of the mud, moving towards Ehren.
Round 10!
Isilme, Ary, Ehren and Valaria are up!
Knowing that the woman had finished casting her spell successfully, Isilme couldn't do anything about her until Ehren or someone else had marked her. In the meantime, however, she could harass the duergar mired in the mud. Isilme points towards the group in back, she invokes her Lady Starsong, unleashing a burst of radiance much like Ehren and Xanderghul so often do.
Val struggles against the mental command, attempting to break free from the enchantment.
Ary does her best to find her center once more, as the first of Isilme's spell cedes from her mind, her blood almost seems to flow noticably slower. Her attention turns fully to the Duergar that had almost put her on the ground - was that some kind of monk thing? - seeking to both bring him down and drive him away at the same time. "Do you have a name to share?" she asks, recognizing this foe as every bit as dangerous as all of the armed foes around her... perhaps moreso, given his lack of armaments.
Even as she assaults her foe, her armor develops a silvery sheen, as her low, wide stance - the one used to guard her allies - is replaced by a straighter-standing Ary, guarding her own honor.
"Where is she, Anevia?" Ehren asks as he backs away from the encroaching duergar, peering over his shoulder. As usual, he has his invisibility-thwarting faerie fire prepared, but it would not be of much use if he doesn't know the caster's general location.
The earth elemental looks to the next closest duergar, the one who decided to punch Ary's face. It idly swats at the beetle standing in its way, before carefully wading through the group of slaves to approach its new quarry.