"It shouldn't be particularly difficult," she said, responding to Ary's first query. In response to the second, she shook her head. "I can only really manage it once a day. it doesn't work quite like it would if I were a proper magic-user. Sort of an innate ability more than a spell, I suppose... although I see it in my head the same way I did the few times I successfully cast a cantrip I'd memorized." she added with a shrug.
"You first?" she said to Valaria. "If there's anything hiding in the shadows, you'll be better suited to spot it."
Ary grinned, her tone teasing, "Or maybe you just want to watch her go first."
Valaria grins. "Well, if you want to watch me walk, you don't have to ask," she says, matching Ary's teasing tone. "I'm happy to show off." She winks at both Ary and Li'an and takes point, moving slowly down the dark tunnel toward where Li'an saw the structure and putting a little sway in her hips.
Ary stuck her tongue out at Li'an, then said, in a lower voice, reminiscent of a whisper, but loud enough to be heard through the distance. "You're welcome."
"Seriously?! I would rather we wait on the courting and focus on getting out of here in one piece."
Hrut may or may not have been watching the hips as he said that, you would never know within the dark helmet.
"If you need me to, I can try and discern any magical properties. I am, after all, trained." murmurs Markus, sort of quietly. He lets Valaria go first, of course, but offers his help up nonetheless.
"Didn't you hear all the rousing speeches about morale?" Ary asked, keeping the same teasing tone she'd had before, as she clearly spoke to Hrut.
"And I wasn't necessarily talking to Fen'wen, Mage. I just asked if one of you could get ideas. I know I can't. So... what do you see?" Ary smiled at him as she took her eyes off of the encroaching darkness behind them to look towards Markus.
Li'an started to protest, but Val was already heading down the hall. Stealing a quick glance at the shapely tiefling, she turned to Ary and put her hands up in a gesture of surrender. When Hrut voiced his objection, she responded with a quick "Focusing!" and turned swiftly to head down the hall after Valaria.
Val stops not far down the hall as she hears Markus's reply. "I can wait if you've got something to try gloomy," she says. "Anything to tell me what that weird light is is good in my book."
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Markus moves up beside Li'an, his eyes keen for danger, and with a small blue glow from within indicating that he's scanning for magic. He considers, for a moment, joining in on the teasing about Valaria, but he thinks that the funny part of it has gone away, and that if he tried to make a joke about it Markus would just ruin the joke.
"Does anyone want me to cast a light into the room?" asks Markus. "Li'an? I can light a stone and throw it."
Gloomy? He isn't gloomy. That's dumb.
EDIT:
"Probably not a bad idea if you're unable to detect anything magic," she replied to Markus.
Feeling a bit of tension as they approached the building and whatever was causing the strange light, she quietly drew Lleuad.
Valaria moves down the tunnel, though possibly because she's showing off, she isn't very quiet about it. She looks down the tunnel, and finds that a single sizable 20 ft tall building remains in the center of a 30 foot high cave, a bunkerlike structure with no windows and walls of worked,stone blocks. A 10-foot-long carving of a hammer decorates the building's facade. The ruins of collapsed outbuildings stand to either side.
She notices that two, enormous houseflies are crawling on the building. They appear monstrously deformed, with large, tumorous growths decorating their abdomens.
Initiative Rolls
Initiative Order
1. Ehren
2. Giant fly 1
3. Giant fly 2
4. Markus
5. Anevia Tirablade
6. Aravashnial
7. Ary
8. Hrut
9. Li'an
10. Horgus
11. Valaria
Surprise Round!
The flies react faster than Valaria does, and take off down the tunnel in pursuit.
Valaria is up
"More giant bugs?!" Valaria half shouts as she moves back toward the group. "Argh, today keeps getting worse."
Round 1
Ehren is up.
"I can move to the mouth of the cave and keep them contained a bit, I have fairly quick reflexes when it come to these type of things and the flies may not make it past me."
Perhaps sounding too eager to use his mostly untested combat abilities but confident non the less.
"As long as everyone stays safe, I'm not too worried." Ary said, shifting her weight. "Those who aren't going to fight, gather around me, and I'll watch your back."
"I'll leave it to you, then," Ehren replies to Hrut, "There is not much space in there as is."
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Unable to reach their quarry, Ehren instead focuses on their surroundings, using his spirit sense to search for potential threats.
Ehren does not detect any auras.
The faster of the two flies charges down the tunnel, the buzzing of its wings grows ever louder as it approaches the rest of the group.
The fly catches up to Valaria and bites her, landing a quick, but devastating strike. The other fly remains close behind.
Markus is up.
Valaria yelps in pain as the bloated flies attack her. "Lure them back to the tunnel entrance," she calls back, falling into a defensive stance. "There's not enough room to fight in here."
"You better be careful up there Valaria! No getting yourself seriously wounded after I asked you to take point!" Li'an called out as she prepared herself to fight.
"Stay back, everyone - let Hrut move to the fore." suggests Markus. "Li'an, Valaria, you two should fall back behind the front line."
Anevia draws her shortsword and backs up against the wall.
"What is going on?" Aravashnial asks.
Ary moves towards the center of the group where she can better defend her allies.
Hrut is up.
Hrut moves up to the mouth of the cave,
"Move back either beside or behind me, let the flies come and we can defeat them together out here easier."
Li'an is up.
Li'an will fall back around the corner and attempt to hide in the shadows there to wait for a chance to ambush the flies when they move forward.
Stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
Horgus backs up against the tunnel wall, looking back and forth into the darkness on either side of him anxiously.
Valaria is up.
"Horgus. Trust me when I say this. I am a safer place to be than a random wall. I can't protect you if you keep moving away from me." Ary said, her tone somewhat annoyed at the man's actions. She understood fear, but it was becoming a bit much.
"As for what you've missed, all I know is 'Giant Bugs' and 'Valaria wiggling her hips.' I'm not sure which is more important to you, though." she said, her tone not quite making it away from the annoyed tone.
Valaria jumps back again, trying to get clear of the disturbing insects.
"Okay, lesson learned," she says as she rejoins the bulk of the group. "Scouting first, flirting later. Or at least somewhere that doesn't have giant bugs around every corner." She silently curses herself. "This is what I get for not keeping a tighter rein on my impulses." One hand goes to the injury from the fly. It was certainly more painful that she had expected and she rotates her arm, trying to ignore the twinge of pain when she moves to fast.
Round 2
Ehren is up.
"I... actually, Valaria's been bit, bad. She's on the opposite side of Markus from you, Avi." Ary says, immediately switching to concern.
Valaria's head snaps up at Ary's voice. She hadn't realized how much she'd been favoring her injury. "I'm right here," she says, trying to give Aravashnial some guidance. "I'm not sure how bad it is. It's just painful. These things have a nasty bite." She shakes off the injury as much as she can, putting her focus back on the fight where it belongs.
Li'an winced as she saw Valaria emerge from the tunnel wounded. "Lleuad... I should've been up there instead..." Having moved to hide herself, she couldn't risk speaking, so instead she tried to clear her mind to prepare for the fight. Crouching low, she brandished Lleuad-a'r-Sêr, waiting for her chance to strike.
Ehren steps to the side, to get a better look at their insectoid enemies.
I don't understand, they look just like ordinary flies to me, he thinks with a frown, his club raised slightly. As ordinary as flies their size could be, at least.
Aiming a finger just past Hrut, Ehren fires an acid dart at the closest of the flies.
Ehren's acid dart hits the closest fly on the face, leaving a dark, smoking burn.
The flies come buzzing towards Hrut. The first one lunges at him, but Hrut bashes it away with his shield.
Markus is up.
"Miss, I have no idea where you are," Aravashnial says, coldly. He leans against the wall of the cavern, gaining comfort from knowing that at least his back was not exposed.
"Is he so unused to using his ears that he can't tell where a sound is coming from?" Valaria wonders. She understands him not being able to find her precisely, but having no idea at all... "Perhaps the cave is making it echo or something. Really, he doesn't have to be huffy about it." She nods, though he can't see it. "Hold on a moment. I'll try to get closer."
Markus sighs - he doesn't like fighting, and thought he might be able to leave it to the warrior-types...but Markus also doesn't like being useless, so he casts a spell. His hands glow with a violent and crackly purple energy and he steps up beside Hrut.
He lunges in beside Hrut to try and grab at the animal that's closest to the warrior, trying to infuse it with negative energy.
Markus manages to grab onto one of its enormous compound eyes, transferring his magic into its body. Great fissures appear across the creature's face and torso from the effort.
Anevia grips her shortsword, watching the situation closely. "You'll need to try and back out into the tunnel, Hrut, to give people some room to surround them!" she suggests.
Aravashnial pulls out his wand and waits for Valaria to come close enough that he can reach out to her without stumbling through everyone else.
Ary is up.
With a sigh, Ary adjusts her positioning to defend Horgus in addition to the others. Luckily, that also meant that wherever Valaria moved, if the flies could get out, Ary would have her back.
Flurry Strike #1
Shield: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22
Axe: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25
Axe Confirm: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
Shield: 1d6 + 1d4 + 5 ⇒ (1) + (3) + 5 = 9
Axe: 1d6 + 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (5) + (6) + 4 = 15
Attacking with both weapons on the mutant fly, Hrut lands a solid shield bash to it's face to set up a vicious axe blow to one of the fly's bulbous eyes!
"These are some nasty insects! Stay close to me so I can protect you."
I hope she is okay, if I were up front it would not have happened. A moment of doubt creeping into Hrut's head and shaking it off with a noticeable shake of his helmet.
---
Hrut efficiently dispatches the fly before him.
Li'an is up.
Seeing that she'll not get a chance to aid in the fight from where she is, Li'an moves up around the corner. Moving swiftly behind Markus and Hrut, she backs up into the other corner to wait for an opportunity to attack.
Horgus marvels at the size of the fly. "What in the Abyss is that?!"
Valaria is up.
Valaria steps back, getting within arms reach of Aravashnial. "I'm right here," she says, reaching out and carefully putting a hand on his shoulder so she doesn't startle him.
Aravashnial reaches out with his wand. Valaria suddenly feels refreshed, and the pain from her injuries dulls.
Round 3
Ehren is up.
Ehren takes a step back while trying to fire another acid dart past Hrut.
Between the difficulty of the shot and his sudden movement however, the projectile's trajectory is not as planned.
For a brief moment, Ehren loses control of the elemental creation magic he has conjured, but he manages to focus and retain control of its power at the last second. The fly slowly moves forward before suddenly lunging at Hrut, who ducks behind his shield.
Markus is up.
Markus backs off, giving someone else room to maneuver in the tight space if they need it.
Anevia leans against the wall. "Dang, nice hit Hrut! Woah... what?! she exclaims, as from the darkness to her left a bolus of sticky, webbed filament darts out at Horgus!
Ary reacts instinctively, lunging to block the stuff with her shield. Her shield is coated in webbing, which is attached to a long strand of the stuff, extending out into the darkness.
"What was that?!?!" Horgus exclaims, not bothering to thank Ary for her quick save.
Ary is up.
"Not a spider. Something similar, still gonna be a really big bug, I think." Ary says, as she tries to pull the crab on the other end into the light, unwilling to give up her positioning, if she can help it.
"Stay near. Don't break, or I won't be able to protect you. Also, you're welcome."
Ary yanks at the thread, neither breaking it, nor managing to shift whatever it is on the other side. She does discover that she can pull it taut.
Hrut swings at the fly with a golden battleaxe, but he miscalculates and misses.
Attack #2: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Li'an is up.
Li'an takes a quick look around the corner, planning her attack. Waiting for an opening, she steps out and lunges forward, trying to stab the fly before ducking back around the corner.