HP: 48/48
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 16
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5/+8 (+1 vs. charm/compulsion)
Tricks: 2/6 (Mesmeric mirror on self, shadow splinter on Sandru)
Touch treatment 1/6
Spells: 1st 3/5; 2nd 0/4
Vashta frowns as her spell fails and -- keeping her stare focused on the nearest tengu -- centers herself for a moment before causing brilliant motes of dust to explode above the nearest fire, hopefully blinding all those around it.
"Drat!" Clara curses as they're discovered.
She steps forward a few paces, adds a pinch of sulfur to one of her fizzy drinks, and tosses it toward the far campfire. When it hits the fire it explodes in a noxious cloud that engulfs one tengu and both trolls.
Clara hollers "Hey Barky Bear Man, I hope you made the best of this night. I reckon it was your last, or my great grand daddy isn't Umbilicus Flingflopsparkfizz!"
_______________
Vashta and Clara both open up with area attacks designed to incapacitate and disable - Clara with a stink bomb and Vashta with a burst of blinding dust and glitter. The stink bomb manages to take out one of the tengu - who emerges from the cloud mere moments later, choking and coughing. The glitter manages to blind an entire campfire of barely-awakened combatants.
The blinded stand shakily and wander away from the enemy combatants, cawing and rubbing irritably at their eyes, while the one tengu who was already on guard duty screeches and bounds into combat with Vashta. As it draws near it pulls out a curved short sword that glitters in the moonlight.
It slashes in with a swift and accurate strike, but Vashta reacts quickly, activating a defensive trick that interposes an illusory copy of herself in the way of the blade.
Tallak whistles at Ursus, a specific whistle to command the bear to attack. The bear roars and charges towards the nearest foe. As the bear moves, Tallak takes a step forward and asks for divine favor from his ancestors for the coming battle.
__________
Calder double moves over to the Ulfen still getting up. He plans to clear the way of them for Sandru to get out again with Ameiko.
As Calder closes in to melee combat, Jorgan and his pet trolls do as well - one troll gets close enough quick enough to reach out with an unnaturally long arm and slash at Sandru.
That troll gets Sandru right good, nearly slicing his belly open, though the trader manages to push himself back in time to avoid a fatal wound. He grits his teeth and steps in to fight back, his scimitar humming as it heads for the troll's neck. "Some support over here would be nice," he calls.
Shalelu shouts, "I've got your back, Vhiski!" and unleashes a barrage of arrows on the troll, drawing and releasing almost quicker than can be seen.
All three arrows sink into the troll's hide, all in a neat line. As Sandru lands a vicious slice on the creature, it steps back and roars in pain. Even still, its flesh begins to regenerate and heal.
Ulf steps in and jabs downward, viciously, at one of the Ulfen warriors below his feet, though he fearfully keeps his shield between himself and the troll.
He stabs into the warrior's exposed belly, who yelps in pain and fear. When he then tries to get away by sidling away from Ulf, Ulf capitalizes and slashes again, ending that warrior's life. More warriors get up and grab their weapons, which lie nearby in all cases, though both Sandru and Ursus get the opportunity to snap or slice at one of the examples.
Both attacks score their marks, with both Ulfen warriors gasping from the sudden pain and staggering away from those that attacked them.
HP: 48/48
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 16
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5/+8 (+1 vs. charm/compulsion)
Tricks: 2/6 (Mesmeric mirror on self, shadow splinter on Sandru)
Touch treatment 1/6
Spells: 1st 3/5; 2nd 1/4
"Oh, dear, I'm afraid this just won't do. Surely you see that, don't you? Or maybe not?" Vashta says, stepping away from the tengu.
Just in case it doesn't work and he comes after her again, she prepares to duck away, ready to swirl her scarves as cover.
The tengu shrieks and claws at its own face as Vashta renders it permanently blind.
The claw that struck Sandru grows a second, shadow illusory claw that strikes out at the Ulfen warrior right next to Sandru. That warrior wears a look of terror and surprise as it appears to him that his own ally strikes him down. Sandru grins at the help.
Clara sees that one of the trolls seems to be coming her direction. With a gulp she takes one of the new hybrid fizzy drinks she's made out of her belt, puts it in her bombchucker, and chucks it at the nearest troll.
_______________
Clara fires a tangle-fire bag at the approaching troll, and though it coats him in sticky black tar which immediately ignites, the troll manages to keep going without getting stuck to the ground.
The tengu which Vashta has just permanently blinded shrieks and swipes at the air in front of it frustratedly, aimlessly stepping. The two tengu covered by glitterdust also wander about aimlessly, though one of them manages to wipe the dust from its face after a moment.
The only tengu that is up and armed and not debilitated runs around the battlefield, taking a loop around Jorgan and vanishing from sight as he draws near to Calder.
Tallak continues saying prayers to his ancestors, his body shimmering as a shield effect washes over him. He then tightens his grip on his spear and takes off at a trot towards the troll.
Ursus, meanwhile, continues lashing out, turning his attention to the largest foe near him, the bear-man.
__________
Tallak shields himself with a spell and a prayer to his ancestors, while Ursus attempts to rip into the bear-man. Unfortunately, even the one blow the bear does manage to land does nothing to the lycanthrope.
Calder moves over to Sandru, swinging hard at the Troll. "Take Ameiko and withdraw!" He growls.
Calder strikes the troll with his axe, and it roars with pain. The wound begins to heal over immediately, but the troll is badly wounded and it is not healing as quickly as it would need to. Sandru nods, and prepares to leap out of the troll's grasp. "You're right, I'm sorry. Keep them off of me while I carry her out."
Jorgan roars as he is stymied by a mere bear, and he lashes out at Ursus twice with his greataxe before lunging in for a powerful bite.
The werebear's great axe crashes twice into Ursus' powerful armor, sending sparks flying. Ursus is barely even knocked around by the force of the blow, and fends off Jorgan's bite with his claws.
The troll in combat with Calder slashes at him with its teeth and claws.
Even a badly wounded troll is extremely dangerous, and it gouges into Calder with its razor-sharp claws and its teeth, leaving the man bleeding badly.
The other troll struggles against its restrictive bonds, while the fires continue to burn. The fires prevent the troll's distinctive healing, and the goo prevents it from attacking Tallak, but it lumbers towards him until it looms over him.
Ulf has no desire to enter combat with a werebear or a troll, so he draws a handaxe from his belt. He strides over to where he can get a better view of one of the wounded Ulfen warriors and lets fly with it.
It buries itself in the warrior's chest. He looks at the wound in shock for a moment before toppling over. Ulf barks with satisfaction.
Shalelu fires another three arrows at the troll in combat with Calder, shouting, "We need some fire on the troll back there! Take it down!"
Only one of her arrows finds its mark in a vulnerable place this time, though it is enough combined with the other wounds to cause the troll to slow a bit.
Sandru attempts to leap out of the way of the troll he is currently fighting, rolling along the ground to avoid its retributive strike.
The troll rakes him badly as he escapes, and he can audibly be heard gasping. He staggers over to Ameiko's body and begins to lift her up onto his shoulders.
Two of the Ulfen warriors engage with Ulf, while one of the ones that Vashta blinded with glitterdust recovers enough to charge her. A fourth maneuvers around the critically-wounded troll and attacks Calder, while the other four, now standing and armed, try their best to wipe the glitterdust out of their eyes.
One of them manages to strike Ulf, and a second manages to slice along Vashta's arm as she raises it to block the blow.
And two of the blinded Ulfen warriors recover from glitterdust.
Clara shakes up and lobs one of her fierier fizzy pops at the heavily wounded troll attacking Calder, hoping to take it down.
As she does she draws another vial from her belt and mentions to Tallak and Shalelu, as if having an offhand conversation, "For generations my family has debated whether the Ultimate Fizzy Drink was best drunk with friends or thrown at one's enemies. I kinda hope to discover the best of both worlds."
______________
HP: 45/48
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 16
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5/+8 (+1 vs. charm/compulsion)
Tricks: 2/6 (Mesmeric mirror on self, shadow splinter on Sandru)
Touch treatment 1/6
Spells: 1st 3/5; 2nd 3/4
Wincing at the glancing blow, though her pride is stung almost as much as her flesh, Vashta turns her attention -- and her will-sapping stare -- on her new foe.
"Not very gentlemanly at all, dear," she scolds him before stepping back and implanting an aversion in his mind toher prominently displayed kapenia.
Clara tosses a bomb all the way across the battlefield. It impacts on the troll fighting Calder, though the troll (barely) remains standing after the explosion is finished. The warrior next to him is badly burned by ultra-hot carbonated beverage though.
The warrior fighting Vashta grunts desperately with effort and manages to overcome the worst effects of Vashta's spell, though he still appears sick to his stomach at the very sight of her scarf.
One of the tengu, once headed over towards Vashta, realizes that Sandru i likely a greater threat than she is. It turns and dashes across the clearing, flickering from sight as it runs. It attacks Sandru from behind, re-appearing with a swift slash.
The other tengu, the one that disappeared a few seconds ago, re-appears as well. This tengu engages Ulf, slashing at him with the advantage of superior positioning with the Ulfen allies.
The glitterdusted tengu continues to attempt to wipe the glitter from its face, while the permanently blinded one staggers slowly away from Vashta, groping the ground with its talons uneasily as it walks. The nauseated tengu just begins to vomit.
Ulf somehow hears the enemy tengu coming, and turns around quickly enough to bash aside the bird-creature's weapon with his shield, but Sandru is not so lucky, and shouts in pain as a ream along his back is opened up. He had gotten one of Ameiko's arms up over a shoulder, but he drops her battered form back to the ground as he staggers under the wound.
Tallak thrusts his spear at the troll bracing himself to withstand its attacks.
__________
__________
Ursus continues to attack the bear man with all of his primal might.
__________
Seeing Sandru in danger angers Calder. He tries to finish the troll and get over to him.
48 points damage total on the Ulfen warrior.
If that drops the warrior Calder moves to get to the Tengu fighting Sandru.
Calder furiously raises his axe and sweeps it in a wide arc, cleaving through the face of the troll fighting him, sending it topping to the ground, dead. He continues his swing, following through enough to get the Ulfen warrior right in the side, and the momentum is enough that he cuts the man cleanly in two. Calder grunts and hurriedly moves to Calder's side.
Tallak bravely faces the troll, lunging in with a divinely-empowered spear blow. He strikes deeply, and it roars with pain and anger as the wound does not begin to heal.
Ursus strikes out with great might, and though two of its strikes manage to land, neither is powerful enough to resist a lycanthrope's natural resistance to all non-silver weapons, and its bite, thought to be near-lethal on a normal human, doesn't penetrate the ranger's barkskin spell.
Jorgan, the Rimerunners master of security (as this must be) rumbles with frustration as he is persistently engaged by a regular bear, and lashes out with three powerful strikes - two with his axe, and one with a bite.
Jorgan's axe crushes through Ursus' already-weakened armor, plunging deep into the bear's flesh. His second blow whirls around and smashes the animal aside, crumpling the proud beast into a pile of blood and pain. He barks with satisfaction and begins to tromp forward towards the rest of the party.
The one remaining troll bellows and unleashes a flurry at Tallak.
The troll is slow due to its wounds and the goo, and Tallak is able to smash aside the one blow that actually gets near him with his shield.
Ulf steps out from in between his three opponents and pivots, trying to pull enough momentum to deliver a powerful slice along the closest Ulfen warrior's back.
The blow is strong, and the warrior collapses to the ground with a cry. Ulf grunts with satisfaction, but keeps a wary eye on Jorgan, who is dangerously near.
Shalelu's next target is the troll menacing Tallak and Clara, and she draws and nocks another three arrows in quick succession. "It's always giants," she says, semi-quietly.
Two of her arrows find their mark, driving deeply into the troll's flesh at its elbow and shoulder, driving it back a step and causing it to slow ever more.
Sandru laughs through the pain, staggering a step over to flank with Calder. "You think... that was a blow?" he says through gritted teeth before lashing out with a blow of his own.
He manages to get a good slice in, crippling the tengu's movement by getting the creature's ankle, but he passes out from the pain directly afterwards.
Ulfen warriors move into the fray, two nearby ones moving to attack Calder just after having recovered from Vashta's glitterdust, one of Ulf's opponents moving to attack him, and the one revulsed by Vashta's scarf pressing forward to continue the attack against her. Two more warriors continue to attempt recovering from glitterdust.
One of the warriors engaged with Calder manages to get a blow in, though it is accidentally only with the flat of his axe-blade along the man's face, and one of the Ulfen warriors manages to recover from glitterdust.
HP: 45/48
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 16
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5/+8 (+1 vs. charm/compulsion)
Tricks: 2/6 (Mesmeric mirror on self, shadow splinter on Sandru)
Touch treatment 1/6
Spells: 1st 3/5; 2nd 3/4
Vashta frowns as she realizes the sheer numbers arrayed against them might be too much and that she's on his own.
"Sorry, dear, but you're not leaving me much choice here," she says, and punches him, her illusionary duplicate following suit, though the blow seems to glance off him. As she does so, she edges ever so slightly closer to the rest of the fight, hoping she'll be able to get to Sandru before it's too late.
Vashta strikes the warrior before her with her armored gauntlet, and psychically enhances the pain that the warrior feels as she does so. He grunts with pain and staggers a half-step backwards.
Clara gulps when she sees werebear mow down real bear. Uh oh! That wasn't the way I wanted to see that go. And Sandru's down too!!
As she tosses a pinch of sulfur into a fizzy drink, she glances back and forth between the troll in front of her and the werebear. Then she says, "Suck eggy pop, bear-man!" and tosses it toward the werebear (doing her best to avoid splashing Ursus).
________________
Clara hurls one of her soda-bombs at the werebear, and it explodes, searing him badly. He is cloaked in choking smoke as well. However, the werebear is exceptionally tough and resist the choking effects of the smoke.
The tengu ninja dash around, one pulling out a blowgun and running towards Vashta, loading a dart into the blowgun and firing it at her.
He misses her, but the dart flies through her mirror image and dispels it by accident.
Meanwhile, ninjas flash their wakizashis and attack both Calder and Ulf.
Both ninjas strike successfully, scoring wicked and deadly blows while the final ninja attempts to recover from Clara's earlier stink bomb.
Tallak again thrusts his spear at the troll, moving himself further into the fight, namely towards the bear-man.
__________
Tallak lunges in, getting the troll in the chest. He can feel flesh parting underneath his spear as his ancestors guide the spear ever deeper, and the troll bellows in pain. However, Tallak can also feel the spear begin to be pushed out of the wound as the troll recovers from Clara's last bomb and begins to regenerate again.
Calder swings at the Tengu by Sandru.
He then uses his 2nd attack on the same Tengu.
He starts composing his death chant as he grins bloodily.
Calder's swings are both quick and powerful. The tengu, already injured by Sandru's last swing, falls to Calder's axe, who turns and attacks the warrior right next to the tengu, and fells that man as well. He turns bloodily to the second warrior next to him and grins.
Jorgan moves into the action, tromping over towards Ulf, skull-adorned axe in hand. As he gets close enough to strike, he bellows a big bear bellow and swings overhand hard. His strike cleaves a wide furrow along Ulf's front, sending blood spattering and leaving the warrior gasping with pain.
The remaining troll begins to regenerate, forcing Tallak's spear out of its wound and lashing out at the shaman with a series of claw and tooth attacks. The creature is clumsy and wounded, and none of its strikes come even close to successfully hitting Tallak.
Ulf withdraws, cursing the pain and the lycanthrope and everything else, though he still earns the retributive ire of the tengu ninja he was fighting. The ninja strikes him along the arm, and ever more rivulets of blood flow downwards. He curses. "I'm not going to die for you, having saved Ukshakka or not!" he yells.
Shalelu stops talking, her mouth forming a thin, straight line. She quickly draws and nocks three arrows, sending them at the warriors near Calder. Three arrows fly into Calder's last opponent, striking vital spots and sending the warrior hurtling to the ground.
Sandru begins bleeding out, on the ground next to Calder.
The warrior fighting Vashta, injured, sickened, and weakened, thinks better of it and beats a retreat. Two warriors move in towards Tallak, Clara, Ulf and Shalelu, thinking better of engaging Calder, who has already killed five of them, including a troll. The last blinded warrior attempts to recover from glitterdust. The one warrior who gets in range of Tallak to attack is easily driven off by Tallak's enchanted chain, while the last blinded warrior recovers from glitterdust.
Clara glances down and sees that she has only enough reagents for a few explosive drinks left, and decides to refocus herself on the remaining troll.
She easily hits the troll, angling the explosion so that the flames that leap out miss Tallak entirely.
_____________
HP: 45/48
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15, CMD 16
Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +5/+8 (+1 vs. charm/compulsion)
Tricks: 2/6
Touch treatment 1/6
Spells: 1st 3/5; 2nd 3/4
Seeing she has a clear path, Vashta begins moving toward Sandru, hoping she'll be able to help the handsome Varisian before it's too late. Rushing toward him, she casts around for the nearest enemy, and turns her mesmeric gaze upon him.
"Go take care of the bear, dear" she urges Calder. "I'll make sure Sandru and Shalelu are OK and be right behind you!"
Vashta dashes to Sandru and Ameiko's side, her hypnotic gaze and her armored gauntlet at the ready to defend her friends. Meanwhile, Clara finally kills the troll in combat with Tallak with a well-placed fizzy bomb.
The three tengu ninja maneuver into battle. At Jorgan's urging, one charges into battle against Clara, a low leap clearing it over the log that separates it as it brings its its sword to bear on her. One of them moves into battle against Vashta, dropping its blowgun and drawing its sword as it goes, and the third, finally having recovered from nausea, steps towards Calder and swings at him.
The ninja fighting Clara gets its leg caught on a stray branch and nearly falls, and its swing falls short. However, the other two ninja find their mark on Calder and Vashta, drawing blood.
Tallak turns his gaze to the Ulfen next to him, thrusting his spear upwards towards the under-portion of his rib cage. He then moves to close some distance to the bear-man.
__________
Calder groans as yet another annoying bird appears. "Time to murder a crow." He says with gallows humor.
He is punished for his awful pun.
The party's two Ulfen warriors lunge forward with strikes of their own. While Tallak manages to impale his opponent on his spear, the nimble tengu that fights Calder weaves and dips and dodges around both of its strikes. The warrior that is fighting Calder gasps in pain but pulls himself off of the spear. While he is bleeding heavily, he still fights.
Jorgan moves in range of Tallak, but not before shouting, "You imbeciles and weaklings! Strike him where he is weakest! His legs, or the gaps in his chainmail at his neck and armpits!"
Ulf stays back near Shalelu, pulls and unstoppers a potion that he'd sequestered away in his gear, and chugs it down.
He sighs with relief, although the great gaping wound left by Jorgan was still there.
Shalelu grits her teeth, draws two of her sleep arrows, and fires them at Jorgan. Their chances of working were low, but they were better than firing regular arrows, and it was too late to leave him un-addressed. Her first arrow flies by Jorgan, as the werebear sees her aiming for him and dodges it, but the second strikes him dead in the chest and bursts into a cloud of white energy. He looks down into the cloud, begins to laugh at her for being such a weakling, his eyes loll into the back of his head and he falls asleep.
At the fall of their leader, the remaining soldiers and ninja break ranks and immediately flee. The tengu turn invisible with a quick display of ki, while the Ulfen simply run full-tilt into the forest. Shalelu manages to take one down with another barrage of arrows before he manages to get away, but the rest manage to escape... the party has more important matters to attend to.
Combat over!
Vashta, aware for a moment of everyone fleeing, doesn't let herself be distracted from tending Sandru's wounds, though it's not a skill she's well-practiced in, and then goes to check on Ameiko.
"We need healing over here!" she calls out.
Tallak stalks over to Ursus, muttering "Easier said than done, cursed-blood." Once he reaches his bear friend, he works some magic to heal the fallen bear.
The bear lets out a pained growl as Tallak strokes the fur behind his ear calmingly. "Easy, boy."
He looks to the others, "Bind or kill their wounded, and gather around me. I shall heal us once more."
Once the group has gathered everyone around who needs healing, Tallak again begins chanting and pouring healing magics out over the group.
Vashta manages to staunch Sandru's bleeding after a couple of attempts, which gives the party time to move everyone around. Sandru and Ameiko are moved away from the downed enemy combatants, and Tallak surges waves of healing energy over everyone.
Ameiko and Sandru wake up, with Sandru groaning and rubbing the spots where there were, until recently, nearly-lethal wounds. Ameiko looks around at everyone, a look of wonder on her face. "Wow, am I in heaven? I wake up out of nowhere surrounded by all of my friends... Must be."
Clara beams at the praise. "We're not all dead yet, though it looked dicey there for a minute! Still kicking for now though."
The soot-covered alchemist wipes her hands on her apron and glances over at the sleeping lycanthrope. "What do we do about dreamy there? See if we can tie him up to question? Or do we figure we know everything we need to--just keep heading toward Ravenscraeg Castle? If that's the case, maybe someone oughta finish him off.
Then, um...I guess we better find somewhere defended to get some shuteye, cuz I'm exhausted!"
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Vashta smiles at Ameiko, who she's never met, letting her have her moment with her other friends.
She looks troubled at Clara's comment.
"I wasn't here earlier, so can't judge. I could try to charm him or send him away from here, but I can't say how effective those spells would be. Some creatures are more resistant..."
As the others decide what to do, the Varisian will look over the various recovered items and scan them with detect magic .
The jade statuette is not magical.
Calder agrees on CDG-ing Jorgan. He doubts we'll get any information from him, and isn't too keen on torture anyway.
Clarabibulus--tired as she is--can't restrain herself from tinkering with a new alchemical substance. She drains as much blood as she can from the trolls and attempts to make a healing styptic from it.
Unfortunately, in her exhaustion she spills fizzy pop into the first one, ruining it...but does manage to create one styptic.
"Hey, anyone want to carry this salve? If you put it on your wounds it'll make you heal really fast for a little bit...and only maybe make you sick at the same time."
Being the best person to do it, Calder hefts his axe against the prone Jorgan and crashes it into the man's head. Bones crunch as Calder's axe crushes the man's skull, killing him instantly. Then, the group takes his gear and the gear of the tengu and absconds from the little clearing.
With urging from Tallak, and support from Sandru, Ameiko agrees to leave and head back to the caravan and help them hide it. Ulf agrees to go as well, saying, "As much as I love fighting, I think you guys are above my weight class at the moment. Don't worry, I'll protect the caravan if other creatures show up."
Ameiko gets up and goes to leave, although she grumbles as she does so. "Geez, guys," she says, "Um... Thank you for saving me? Look, I really owe you. And while I really wish I could come with you on this awesome adventure, maybe Sandru's right. I should get a bit of rest, see how Koya is doing."
The group is able to forge into the forest a little farther, find a nice and cozy copse of trees and camp out. A watch is set up, and for the next 11 hours, the group is able to rest and relax until early afternoon, when it is time to wake up, have breakfast, and plan the incursion into Ravenscraeg.
"Thank you, dear," Vashta says to Clara. "I suppose I can take one if no one else wants. If worst comes to worst, I can put it on someone else's wounds, as this fight reminded me all too clearly that I'm best at avoiding swordplay. It's been ... a while ... and I may need some more practice."
In the morning, Vashta stretches, before turning a grin toward Sandru.
"Nice night, though a little cold. Someone to share it with might have helped warm things up," she says with a wink, though her face falls for a second as he appears to be too distracted to notice.
Once morning preparations are underway, she offers again to instill her little trick in someone after giving herself the benefit of her mesmeric mirror.
She rubs down Harrow, her horse, and makes sure she's ready to travel