Unafe shakes her head. "An invitation gives him the choice: taking his time to prepare, ignoring us, or even fleeing. Getting the jump on him in his lair doesn't seem easy, but it's worth it."
She takes a moment to shrink to about the size of a velociraptor and then turns to her flying companions. "Anna has spoken but what about you, Yui and Rue: could either of you comfortably carry me while you fly? Or Ehren, your magics are great. Do you want to fly in or be in the second wave? Surely you could take the form of some bird if you wish."
After a pause, Unafe thinks to add, "By the way, if you bind these chords around your forearms you'll find you can carry significantly more without it weighing you down. I'm happy to lend them to one of you if it makes it easier to carry me."
"Besides, I don't really think that Vang is the type of vermin that would come out when called for." Sana responds to Myrna's suggestion. "At best, we'd be telling him we're here, at worst, we'd be wasting valuable resources to have him sit in his sarcophagus gloating about how inferior we all are." Sana says, agreeing with Unafe.
"And... if that's the case... sure. If you're sure you're willing to lend them to me, I'll be happy to take them and try to carry you. Certainly a good time to try, rather than when you need to be carried and I'm not sure if I can." Sana agrees once more. After a bit of finagling, she gets them on, and with a few adjustments to her cufflinks, they shift into white ribbons to better match her outfit - though, illusory. "Ready to see if I can give you uppies?" Sana asks, playfully.
After letting Sana see how big she'll be, Unafe relaxes her focus and returns to her human size. She helps Sana tie the straps around her arms and then says, "I am ready when you are."
The ruined building remains at the heroes’ backs. Deep inside the shadows, the massive flower-thing still pulses, vines shifting causing corpses to sway like ornaments. The stench from inside still clings to their clothes, sweet and rancid. And ahead, things aren't much better.
Aemmer’s Creek spreads out under a cloudy sky. Mist coils below. Ancient trees rise from the muck, bark drowned in hanging moss. They can hear the sound of gnats swarming over the water. Half a mile away is a half-sunken chapel. A moldy ruin, its swollen wooden door bulges in its frame.
Yui had seen it: a shimmering barrier around the building. Inside, demon sentries crouched like gargoyles along the ruined roofline, while outside, a silvery web of alarm spells threaded between the trees.
Vang is inside. Somewhere.
Alase's gazes out at the bog. “Alright, let me repeat,” She points towards Yui. “You fly ahead first, with your magic-sight. You can call out anything you missed the first time, while behind you, Anna carries Unafe, who has shrunken herself, and all three of you will breach the barrier together,” A quick gesture to Rue, the succubus.
"Meanwhile, Rue will be on point." Alase absentmindedly draws lines through the mud with her boot, then nods towards Ehren. "Archdruid, are you flying with the first group? Or coming through with Amber?" Her head tilts.
“Hinagiku, Myrna, Beatrix, Tonbarse, and I hold position until that barrier drops, then, I summon a distraction on the ground to trip the alarms. Their eyes go low; and we strike from above, once Anna signals and Amber can bring us through. Is everyone aligned?” Her gaze sweeps the group.
Tonbarse shifts behind her and makes a snuffling sound.
Unafe nods. "There are plenty of things that can go wrong, assaulting the base of a witch like this, but I think we have planned enough and I'm eager to see if we can catch this abomination on the back foot for once."
Ehren calmly considers Alase's question, his one-eyed gaze briefly flicking skyward. "I will stay put. I can do more down here, with my feet on the ground."
Alase nods at Ehren then raises her arms and stretches. "Ground team it is, good deal." She looks around the group one last time. "Anyone need a moment, this is our last chance for spells, prayers, whatever. Once it's time to go it's time to go, so, speak up." She pauses as she gazes out at the bog stretching before them, gray and silent. Yui lifts first. Her form shimmers and fades until she's little more than a ripple in the mist.
Sana follows, Unafe tucked against her. Her flight is likewise near-silent. Rue spreads her bat-like wings and takes off behind them at a distance.
Below, the water is pitch-black. The trees are dead. The mist swallows sound and color, and the occasional gust of wind is bitter cold. They pass a half of a mile.
Then the chapel emerges from the gray, the demonic sentries crouching on its roof. They lie motionless on the corners of the building, hulking shapes of gray flesh and folded wings, waiting.
Yui approaches the barrier silently from above and prepares to unweave the defensive spell. Quietly drawing upon her magic, she begins her abjurations.
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Sana follows after Yui, now reladen with Unafe. 'Gods, this is nice.' she sends to Rue. 'I've spent most of my life envying strong people for not having to decide what to leave behind, and now I could carry a whole gnome. Maybe two. I need to get myself some of these.'
Unafe continues to focus, drawing on her ancestral connection to keep herself small. As she does, she perches on Anna's back and surveys the bleak terrain.
The Demetae chief smiles a Anna's thoughts. 'Handy indeed! I'm sure we can get you a cords like these once we're done out here, but in the meantime I'm happy to share.'
Yui's first spell unravels against the barrier. The magic ripples like water, distorts, then snaps back into place. The shimmer holds. The second casting flows from her hands before the first has fully faded. This time, cracks race across its surface like ice breaking on a frozen lake before shattering soundlessly.
On the roof, the demons shift, their heads tilting as they scan the skies and murky water below.
Silently, Unafe asks, 'Let's try to sneak past those guards. I'd rather not give Vang time to prepare or flee while they distract us.'
"I'm willing to try... but we're not exactly invisible. We'd have to clear the entire space without cover. And we still need to cause our distraction if we're planning to." Sana responds mentally.
Through a jagged hole where the steeple once stood, you peer down into a single large chamber. Stone pews lie overturned and rotted. A defaced altar squats at the far end, its holy symbols gouged out and replaced with something crude. The floor near the altar has been torn up. Flagstones have been pulled aside to reveal a dark opening with stairs leading down into darkness below. You don't see Vang.
The nabasu haven't seen the heroes. Their dead eyes sweep the bog, the treeline, the mist rolling beneath them. One tilts its head and sniffs, nostrils flaring wide. But their gaze passes over the heroes hidden in the nearby trees.
Rue's voice sounds in your minds: "They're blind to us for now. But I know I can't reach the opening without going through them. Your call, do we hit them now, or bring in the others first?"
"My vote is to bring in the others. I could probably sneak us inside, but I don't like the idea of being trapped between that many Nabasu and whatever else he's got in there." Sana responds telepathically. "Though I guess the trick to get them to fly off after us isn't going to work great as a distraction... blowing open a way out in case things go south is still worthwhile."
While the others fly off, Myrna waits behind with Alase, the Archdruid, and Lieutenant Medici. Growing more used to waiting by the day, she paces only moderately. While they wait, she enchants herself with heroism, knowing that it would be far less than an hour before they were going to be fighting the demons.
Of course, Myrna still didn't have a swarmbane clasp, which meant that there was little she could do against the worm that walks that they were here to pursue. But she could at least destroy his cultists, guards, and the nabasus that were around.
Not sure exactly how telepathy works, she tries to think towards Rue. "When do we get to crack some skulls?"
Knowing that battle is near, Beatrix casts a spell on herself to protect herself from compulsions. It was a small measure of protection, but it was as good as it was going to get this time. The rest of the prayers that she had prepared for the day were more direct, for battle.
"I'm ready," she murmurs, "Let's slay some demons."
Rue's voice is heard by Unafe, Sana and Yui: "Anna's right. We hit harder when we're all together. Any objections?"
"Looks like that's a 'No.'" Sana responds after a few moments of waiting for any interjections, "Get ready to pounce, I'm sending the signal to our allies." she continues, hovering down to the ground.
Back at the ruined building amidst her allies, Amber flutters slowly back and forth, telling the group they were ready to join them.
Knowing that Amber waving meant that it was, in fact, time to slay demons, Beatrix casts a spell on herself in preparation for battle, surrounding herself with a blazing halo of holy power, protecting her against the attacks of demons and giving her a powerful attack to use against the nabasu.
Then she disappears into the lantern, appearing beside their half-demon friend.
Already enchanted by heroism, Myrna is about as ready as she thinks she'll ever be. Quickly she drops her turtle shield of rushing waters and her hammer of cosmic sundering into her hands and then rushes into the breach, appearing beside her Lieutenant, scanning the horizon for threats. She sees the nabasus waiting for them and readies for battle.
"Hah!" she barks, "These creatures will be easy!"
"I will be preparing for Vang to prevent him from using his magic," she relays through succubus.
At Anna's signal, Unafe stops concentrating on keeping herself small and immediately regains her full saurian stature. The instant she does, she attempts to grab the nearest demon and then to step onto the rooftop in the spot the demon was perched.
Ehren steps through the lamplight and appears at Sana's side in a flash.
At the ruined building, Amber bobs in the direction Sana directs.
Alase cracks her neck. "Alright, let's go."
Hinagiku steps through first, then Alase, spear in hand. Tonbarse pads after them. They materialize in the trees near the chapel next to Sana. The nabasu crouch on the broken roof ahead, oblivious. Then Unafe stops holding herself carry-size.
She erupts into twelve feet of saurian fury in an instant. Her hand shoots out and closes around the closest nabasu's throat before the demon can react. It thrashes, wings beating uselessly in her iron grip.
At the same time, Rue's bowstring releases. The arrow catches the other close nabasu in the shoulder, leaving the feather shaft sticking out. Black blood pours down its shoulder. The demon flinches, hissing, nostrils flaring. Its head snaps toward them, eyes wide.
Round 1!
Unafe is up!
Unafe consolidates her grip, holding the demon firm, and then swings it at the next nearest demon.
As she does she gives a cold-blooded stare at the other three demons, letting them know, you're next.
Tracking
30 AC // +2 vs evil outsiders, +4 from soft cover vs others if I grapple successfully
36 CMB (39 vs Grapple) +2 vs evil outsiders
164/164 HP //
9/9 Martial Flex //
6/6 Resolve //
11/11 MP //
1/2 martial focus // -1 brutal strike
6/18 SP //
34/50 CLW charges (wand 1) //
1/1 barkskin (CL 12) remaining //
3/3 surges remaining //
3/3 stone shapes remaining //
3/3 stone to flesh remaining //
DR 2/- vs evil outsiders.
Sana does her best to calmly wait for all of her companions to arrive, unwilling to be mid-flight when a friend appears.
Unafe only tightens her grip, the demon's struggles doing nothing against her overwhelming strength. She swings the thrashing nabasu like a club, slamming it into its nearest companion. The demon she used as a weapon goes limp in her grasp for a moment, wheezing. The one she hit staggers back, snarling. Its gaze darts from Unafe to Yui.
Then it vanishes with a faint crack of displaced air, teleporting across the chapel roof.
At the same time, another nabasu spreads its wings and launches from the opposite side of the chapel. Its eyes flare with the same terrible hunger.
The pinned demon writhes in Unafe's grip, wings beating frantically. It thrashes, trying to tear free. It is helpless.
Yui is up!
Unafe shudders under the demon's foul gaze, but stands resolute.
Yui inadvertently makes eye contact with the Nabasu as it gazes at Unafe, but manages to shake it off through sheer willpower, though doing so causes her to lose her composure somewhat.
At the first opportunity she begins to fly forward silently, seeking to move out of the combat area to avoid getting caught in another's gaze attack. She heads to above the middle of the cathedral and takes a moment to center herself before turning her attention to the structure below. She
gazes down into the space, keeping watch for Vang with her magically augmented senses.
Yui is invisible and silent. She drifts to a position above the chapel's center, peering down through the collapsed steeple. Below her is the ruined sanctuary. There is a dark opening near the altar that leads down into the darkness. She can see silvery magical threads strung between overturned pews, that seem to emanate out from the altar, shrouding the opening. She doesn't see Vang.
Alase raises her spear toward the chapel and barks a command. "Tonbarse! Go! Trigger the alarms!"
The massive wolf launches forward, tearing through the bog, water spraying. Magic ripples outward as he trips the trap. The air turns sickly green. Yellowish poison fog erupts in a 20-foot cloud where Tonbarse triggered the trap, rolling along the ground.
Alase then begins chanting, and raises her spear high. Magic ripples outward from her spearpoint. Everyone on the ground feels the spell take hold, their movements becoming fluid and effortless. She herself moves forward, closing the distance toward the chapel.
Myrna, Sana, Beatrix, Ehren and Unafe are up!
Unafe again casts off the demon's foul influence. Gripping the Nabasu like a toy and smashing it into another with all of her might. As she does she gives a righteous war honk, inspiring those around her to greater heights.
Tracking
30 AC // +2 vs evil outsiders, +4 from soft cover vs others if I grapple successfully
36 CMB (39 vs Grapple) +2 vs evil outsiders
164/164 HP //
9/9 Martial Flex //
6/6 Resolve //
11/11 MP //
1/2 martial focus //
6/18 SP //
34/50 CLW charges (wand 1) //
1/1 barkskin (CL 12) remaining //
3/3 surges remaining //
3/3 stone shapes remaining //
3/3 stone to flesh remaining //
4/4 shout rounds remaining
DR 2/- vs evil outsiders.
Beatrix launches into action, using the haste granted speed to sprint quickly around the perimeter of the ruined chapel to where she can get a better look at the nabasus hanging back. She weaves a prayer, holding her holy symbol high and crying out, "Inheritor, blast these fiends with a wave of sound!"
In answer, the nabasus across the way are indeed blasted with sonic power, the spell threatening to disorient them, if only for a moment.
Myrna expands, growing her signature horns and changing her skin. She shifts stances to protect herself despite the reduced mobility from her larger size. Then, leaving the nabasus in Unafe's grasp to the tender care of her saurian companion, she takes off after Beatrix, intent on protecting her lieutenant while she gathered the attention of the other two nabasus.
Ehren follows Myrna and Beatrix, his bare feet slapping against the muck as he races around the chapel. Even as the mud and filth splash onto his legs and vestments, the mess sloughs off, repelled by some unseen force. As the nabasus on the rooftop come into view, the druid draws on the ample power running through Storasta, kneading it into his primal magic.
Flinging his hand out at the demons, he follows the lieutenant's spell with one of his own, evoking a column of brilliant fire.
Whoops! Somehow I added a crit confirm roll for my second attack *instead* of a damage role. :-/
battered, -3 AC/CMD, -3 Reflex. ½ damage to #2 ...and if that confirms (including the -3 AC from the swing before hitting), +11 to dam (in addition to whatever crit effects)
Haste Rounds: (), 0
Status: Healthy 160/160 | Temporary HP ( rounds) | 0 Nonlethal. (120/80/40) | Healing Pool 0/0
1 Con Damage
Haste, Telescopic Lens, Blur, See Invisibility
Maneuvers Readied: , Eldritch Consumption, Time Skitter,
Can Gain: Breath of the Moon, Carnival Swap, Fluctuation Movement
Have Used:
Active Element: Fire
* * *
Amber appears amidst the copse of trees as Sana darts forward, the tiny mote beginning to glow brighter as she leaves it amidst her allies. She sails upwards through the cloud to press the advantage on the wounded Nabasu. As a pillar of holy flame erupts from the rooftops - the Archdruid clearly having the same idea - she adjusts her trajectory whipping her starknife into the nearest Nabasu, leaving herself in a position for her southern allies to easily use Amber's light to leap into the fray.
Hinagiku, quickened by haste, flies up over the rooftop. Silver light flares as ley energy floods her limbs. Sana follows, reaching one of the further demons. She draws her starknife and punches it through a demon's chest. Glowing faerie fire clings to the wound and entangles it in violet threads.
Beatrix and Myrna move around the chapel's western side. The cleric calls out, but her voice is soon eclipsed by a thunderous burst. Rue fires four times before the stunned demons can react, shooting arrows that trail glowing starlight. First one goes through one nabasu's throat. The demon drops, dead before it hits the ground. Then three more towards another closer demon, the final landing straight in the demon's chest. That demon too falls.
Ehren follows and raises his hand and fire splits the afternoon sky. Columns of divine flame roar down on the remaining demon. The nabasu screeches as it burns, then falls smoking from the roof. Dead.
The Heroes Are Up!
In that case, I did 56 directly to the demon I'm grappling (plus +11 +whatever the chart says, if that crit)
Move: Grapple (deal damage, maintain, haste): 1d20 + 32 + 5 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 32 + 5 - 2 + 1 = 49
Damage: d6 + 14 ⇒ (2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 6, 1, 2) + 14 = 21
Stnd: Brutal Strike (just punch the demon I'm grappling), haste: 1d20 + 25 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 25 + 1 = 46 Confirm? : 1d20 + 25 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 25 + 1 = 29 battered, -3 AC/CMD, -3 Reflex. ½ damage to #2 ...and if that confirms, +11 to dam (in addition to whatever crit effects)
Damage: 8d6 + 14 ⇒ (2, 2, 1, 4, 3, 1, 2, 6) + 14 = 35
Anna is astonished at how quickly the group absolutely demolishes the Nabasu... just one would have been a significant threat to Sana in her current state. Trusting her allies to continue their dismemberment of their foes, she sends Amber to hover between Alase and Tonbarse as she dips down into the Cathedral to have a look around.
Haste Rounds: (), 0
Status: Healthy 160/160 | Temporary HP ( rounds) | 0 Nonlethal. (120/80/40) | Healing Pool 0/0
1 Con Damage
Haste, Telescopic Lens, Blur, See Invisibility
Maneuvers Readied: Breath of the Moon, Carnival Swap, Eldritch Consumption, Time Skitter,
Can Gain:,, Fluctuation Movement
Have Used:
Active Element: Fire
* * *
The last demon writhes in Unafe's grip. She squeezes harder, moving so both arms around its chest, ribs cracking like kindling. The nabasu gasps. Then she swings it into the church steeple. The demon convulses and black blood sprays everywhere. Its wings twitch once, then it goes deathly still. Unafe drops the body as it dissolves into goo.
The aerial assault is done. Sana dips down through the shattered steeple into the chapel itself. Inside it is shadowy and dark. The sunlight beams through holes in the roof, though the doors appear to be barricaded from the inside, benches piled high. A single chamber, maybe thirty feet across. There is an altar, defaced with Abyssal script. The stone floor cracked and tilting, half of the building submerged in the swamp. And there, near the back wall: an open trapdoor that leads to stairs descending in the dark. Heavy wood banded with iron. But what catches her eye is the web. Silvery threads crisscross the floor. Invisible to normal sight, but her lens reveals them, gossamer-thin tripwires of magic stretching wall to wall.
"The inside is trippy-trapped with more of the spidersilk. Looks magical. There's a heavy iron door in here. Are any of you skilled at breaking magical traps, or do we do it the old fashioned way, with a summoned horse? Oh, and a defaced altar. Cause, of course."
Rather than running all the way back around the building, Myrna decides that she's just going to climb the chapel up to its roof so that she can drop down through the hole.
Her powerful arms pull her up to the roof pretty easily, and once there she looks down towards towards Sana for confirmation that it's okay to jump down to the floor below. If she wasn't about to jump into a magical trap, that is.
"I like the old-fashioned way, myself," she responds, leaning on a broken beam and squinting down into the darkness. "Though I probably don't want to be the one summoning a horse."
Not blessed with the same powerful biceps as her captain, Beatrix runs back around the chapel, her speed blessed by Alase's spell, so that she can reach Sana's flickering Amber, which will allow her to teleport into the building with ease.
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In the interest of pragmatism, Ehren follows Beatrix around the building and back to Amber. Given Sana's warning, however, he holds off on stepping through the light, not too keen on teleporting into the middle of a minefield. He grimaces at the prospect of triggering such traps with a horse, of all things.
"Surely there is a more elegant approach," he suggests. "One that does not entail sending some poor creature to its doom."
"I could probably bypass it." Sana responds, "But then that leaves our way out trapped... which I've been hopeful we could maintain a clear exit strategy that doesn't require my consciousness."
Satisfied with the resolution of the battle up above, Yui heads down after Sana. "I will disable them," she whispers to Sana as she stops near her and begins the work of disabling the traps, taking care to avoid setting off the magical tripwires before rendering them harmless. She then scans the area again, looking for any other traps that might be in their way before heading down the stairs into the darkness.
Star-maps are carved into the stone, marking the altar as being of Pulura, the goddess of northern lights and star-roads. Abyssal writing is scratched over the star patterns. Deskari's unholy symbol covers Pulura's.
Myrna's strong arms pull her up the crumbling chapel wall easily. Stone crumbles under her grip but holds. She reaches the roof and peers down through the shattered steeple.
Below, she can see Sana hovering above the ground, a dark trapdoor at the back.
Outside, Alase kneels by her god, checking the wolf's breathing. He is wheezing, ribs heaving, but still alive.
"He'll hold," Alase says quietly.
Rue hovers outside, her starbow still drawn. Her eyes track the sky, waiting for more demons.
Yui attempts to speak to Sana, but she cannot hear her. She drops through the hole and hovers above the silvery wires. Her fingers move over them, whispering a counter-phrase as the silver threads dissolves into nothing. The magic unwinds into smoke.
With the floor safe, she moves to the trapdoor. Heavy wood reinforced with iron bands. Her lens reveals wards layered over it: mage's private sanctum was anchored here to block scrying, and another alarm spell, but no actual traps. Just defensive magic to keep prying eyes out. The stairs descending into darkness below are clean.
She hears something drifting up from the crypt below. Chanting, low and rhythmic, Abyssal words rising through the darkness.
The basement is maybe twenty feet down, a vaulted crypt carved from stone, half-flooded with brackish swamp water. And there, hovering near the center of the room, is Vang.
His form shimmers - he is invisible, so, to Yui he is but a withing outline of a humanoid in a robe, and even that stutters in and out sight, as if he were two transposed figures viewed at once. He floats five feet above the water, one hand gesturing as he finishes an incantation. The Abyssal words echo off stone walls. And beside him, something else materializes... a shadow demon taking shape in the darkness.
You can see the silvery trip-wires dissolve into smoke.
The Heroes Are Up!