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When Nina hears Bishop's description of the fallen angel, she recalls her grandmother's tales of a devil called an erinyes. A Medium-sized outsider with the devil, evil, extraplanar, and lawful subtypes, most erinyes stand just under 6 feet tall and weigh about 140 pounds, even with their black-feathered wings that stretch over 10 feet wide.
According to Ol' Gran, the erinyes are known by many names—the Fallen, the Ash Wings, and the Furies—the devils called erinyes mock the form of the angelic hosts in their exaction of vengeance and bloody justice. Executioners, not judges, erinyes alight upon the bladed eaves of Dis, Hell's cosmopolitan second layer, ever attentive for chances to soar into battle, whether in defense of Hell, on the whims of diabolical masters, or at the impassioned summons of jilted mortal summoners. All erinyes weave deadly living ropes from their own hair, which they use in battle to lift their foes into the air, mocking and condemning their victims for their transgressions before dropping them from great heights.
Erinyes appear as darkly beautiful angels, augmenting their sensuality with deliberate bruises and scars. Yet despite their beauty, erinyes are not seducers—they lack the subtlety and patience required for such fine emotional manipulations, and instead vastly prefer to solve their problems with swift and excruciating violence. Often, an erinyes will stay her hand before attempting to slay a foe simply so she can draw out the victim's suffering. Death is usually the only way to escape an erinyes's not-so-tender attentions, and the most powerful of these devils excel at keeping their enemies alive but helpless so as to extend their torment—many going as far as to keep their victims alive with magic. Rumors hold that the most powerful erinyes torturers have skills that allow their torment to continue even after their subject has died from their attentions.
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Hanlin listens intently to the descriptions but doesn't recognize the winged creature.
"Flying devils.. with a rope. That doesn't bode well. Perhaps our ranged artillery should focus on her? I don't know, I'm not much of a strategist." He rubs his forehead nervously.
"The more spread out everyone is the harder you would be to heal, but I can heal a large area if needed. I wouldn't worry so much about those birds, but if there isn't much else you can do it would be a help."
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"...and that's about all I can remember," Nina concludes, having explained everything her grandmother had ever told her about the erinyes. "Granny knows all sorts of things about angels and demons because she did a lot of work for the church of Sarenrae when she was younger. She was so proud of me when I learned how to call Inky and went off to learn to be a knight!"
Nina smiles for a moment, thinking back to her days as a child back in Gogpodda...but then drags her mind back to the here and now. "Oh and they can be pretty tough, too. It's hard to hurt them using _____."
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Erlathan recalls a rather embarrassing long-ago episode, when one day his rather conventional mother barged into his room, finding the young man ogling a dog-eared, ancient tome entitled The Last Temptation of Hell: An Illustrated Guide.
It should be noted that 'time-out' can be an interminable sentence for a long-lived elf. The youth never forgot the lesson, nor the vivid, vivacious imagery. There was a brief caption under the graphic depiction, something about an erinyes carrying a 50-foot-long rope that entangles opponents of any size as an animate rope spell (CL 16th, DC 20). An erinyes can hurl its rope 30 feet with no range penalty. An erinyes's rope functions only for the erinyes who made it and no other.
There was another intriguing footnote about the fiend's spell-like abilities, among them, the ability to summon a pair of barbazu consorts, as well as true seeing, fear, greater teleport, minor image, and unholy blight.
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Once everyone is as ready as they'll ever be, Nina grips her lance and glances at Lord Bragget. "Okay, so Bishop and Vegazi will try to come around from behind while the rest of us charge in using the stairs, right? Or wait...that could work but then that'd put all the bad guys between us and that could be bad if we can't get to either of you..."
She shakes her head. "Meh! Tactics never were my strong point. Look, you two just do what you think is best, okay? I know we need to hit Kelseph and that flying ugly pretty hard but those stupid birds are going to be a pain and wear us down if we don't take care of the braziers pretty quick too...so how about Lord Bragget and I charge in and hit 'em hard with an opening salvo and then the rest of you can come in and start hitting them and then Inky and I can start kicking over the braziers! Sound good? Okay! Here we go..."
And with that, Inky and Nina sprint off up the stairs with a cry of, "For Arwyll Steeeeeaaaaaddddd!" and charge at the first hell raven they see.
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Erlathan digs through his back once more, and produces two scrolls of Summon Monster II, and two of Summon Monster III. "How could I forget about these! It looks as though we'll have some additional members of our party in this upcoming fight. I shall cast like I have never casted before!"
He holds his scroll of Summon Monster III at the ready.
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"Haha, that sounds like a pla-" Lord Braggett starts to cheer, but is interrupted by Nina's sudden yet inevitable charge. "Ha, that's the way, Lady Brightspark! For Arwyll's Stead... Chaaaaaarge!" With a big smile on his face, the gnomish knight starts whirring his flail over his head until it starts making the most satisfying noise, *Fwooop Fwooop Fwooop* and urges Sir Kibble to action as he holds his shield up to deflect any incoming projectiles. The shaggy wolf responds by bounding up the steps behind, then past, Nina, carrying his eccentric, laughing rider towards Kelseph without a care for the raven the other knight is sure to dispatch with ease.
Standard action: Attack Kelseph (Or make the Lion's Call if he can't get to her.)
Kibble:
Move or double move depending on what is available. (50ft. movement speed.)
The first time Kibble is hit in a round, Braggett will use the Mounted Combat feat, and as an immediate action to try and negate any damage. The hit is negated if the Ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll.
For the first two adjacent allies (including Braggett) who are targeted for an attack, Kibble will use the Bodyguard feat to use an AoO and boost their AC.
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When Kelseph sees you, her face twists in rage as she screams: "You! I’ve lost nearly everything because of you! Shayle, destroy them!"
The erinyes Shayle laughs and replies, "Kelseph, only those who can defend their power are worthy of it."
Vegazi, bow in one hand and waterskin in the other, moves up past Bishop, crouching in the shadows of the stone-carved steps, to the nearest iron brazier and drops its contents on the flames, which sputter and wink out. The hell raven circling above it caws in alarm.
"Hello, Mother. My late sisters said you've been looking for me. Miss me?" You're shocked at what sounds almost like a soliloquy from the usually taciturn Vegazi.
Erlathan
Hanlin
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Kelseph
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
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Shayle
---
Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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4 Hell Ravens
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The image of Lord Braggett riding up the steps, whirling his flail confidently above his head and creating vortices in the early morning mist is actually pretty darn inspiring. "Your reign of terror ends now Kelseph, and that goes for your bird lady too... Have at you!" He yells with conviction as he raises the Arwyll family crest emblazoned on his shield and calls again for his fellow knights to join the charge. "Onward friends!!!"
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The image of Lord Braggett riding up the steps, whirling his flail confidently above his head and creating vortices in the early morning mist is actually pretty darn inspiring. "Your reign of terror ends now Kelseph, and that goes for your bird lady too... Have at you!" He yells with conviction as he raises the Arwyll family crest emblazoned on his shield and calls again for his fellow knights to join the charge. "Onward friends!!!"
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The party shakes and bakes, basting themselves in buffs both great and small.
Erlathan sticks a slender hand into his magician's hat, tugging on a celestial rabbit or some other magical beast.
Erlathan
Hanlin
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Kelseph
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
---
Shayle
---
Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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4 Hell Ravens
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As the final word floats off the scroll of Summon Monster III, an orb of light shimmers into view, floating just above Kelseph.
"Not bad, huh? Some day, I'll be able to do that without a scroll! Lantern Archon, I can't quite think of a name for you yet, so we're gonna have to go with Compact Fluorescent Lamp. More environmentally friendly than incandescence." He's sure he notices a sweat drop fall off the archon's top. "It's true. Now fire away!"
CFL whirrs to life, two rays emerging from its ring.
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As Erlathan finishes reading his celestial text message, he downloads a heaven-sent orb of menacing light just above Kelseph's head. The lantern archon emits two rays of light that zap the earth near her feet.
The celestial creature buzzes and hums in agitation, frustrated that none of these denizens of hell take her seriously.
Erlathan & CFL
Hanlin
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Kelseph (red)
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
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Shayle (maroon)
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Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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4 Hell Ravens
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Hanlin drops his wand of bless at his feet and quickly hustles up the stairs, shield in hand. He carefully shuffles forward until he's just in range of the far northwest brazier and twinkles his fingers and wrinkles his nose. 8 gallons of water appear from the sky and dump unceremoniously on the unholy fire. "E gads that smell! Reminds me of the time a half orc friend peed on a fire to put it out.. *gag*"
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Hanlin shuffles up the stone steps and conjures a watery deluge over the northwestern brazier, dousing the flames with a mighty splash.
Kelseph steps away from Bishop, ignoring the lantern archon above her head. "Don't just stand there like the Statue of Liberty, Shayle! Slay them already, and let us together sacrifice Vegazi!" With crazy eyes and an evil grin, she begins chanting.
Trying to disrupt her mother's spell, Vegazi draws her bow and looses an arrow, striking the orc with a satisfying thud. "Take that, Mommie Dearest!"
Kelseph howls in enraged frustration. "I will rip your beating heart from your chest with my bare hands, Daughter!"
Erlathan & CFL
Hanlin
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Kelseph (red)
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
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Shayle (maroon)
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Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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4 Hell Ravens
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"Hahahaha! We're here to put out your flames and pee in your cereal!" Nina cackles as she urges Inky forward to the remaining brazier. While Inky adopts a defensive position and readies to defend her rider, Nina quickly draws her canteen and dumps the contents over the flame.
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Amidst a discussion of cereal and... other things, Nina urges her eidolon to move to the iron brazier crackling in the southwest corner of Eiseth's Summit. She pops the cork on her waterskin and puts out its eery flames.
The shadows lengthen and deepen now, without the light of the strange flames.
The erinyes, Shayle laughs, the way Hell itself might chuckle, if it could. "Kelseph, only those who can defend their power are worthy of it."
Her giggles fade, as she vanishes.
Erlathan & CFL
Hanlin
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Kelseph (red)
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
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Shayle (maroon)
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Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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4 Hell Ravens
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"Haha! That's what you get for making deals with devils." Lord Braggett cheers as Kelseph is apparently left to defend herself, "Your diabolical plans are undone, Vegazi's beating heart will remain in her chest, and your cereal is ruined... Kibble, CHAAAAARGE!!!" With a squeeze of his heels, the brave knight urges Sir Kibble into action, closing the gap in an instant. "Have at you!" While Kibble bites at her ankles, Braggett whirls his flail at Kelseph's chest with all the power he can muster.
Swift action: Challenge
Full action: Charge Kelseph
Kibble:
Full action: Charge Kelseph
Can't use mounted combat because of used swift action.
For the first two adjacent allies (including Braggett) who are targeted for an attack, Kibble will use the Bodyguard feat to use an AoO and boost their AC.
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Like a knight in the midwinter bedtime stories his grammy used to tell him, Lord Braggett challenges his foe and charges forward into battle on the mountaintop.
A single ray of sunlight pierces the foggy mist, glinting off the cavalier's flail as the weapon cracks into Kelseph's masterwork breastplate, leaving a large dent in the steel, crushing internal organs and knocking the wind out of the crazed orc.
Sir Kibble's jaws snap shut around Kelseph's ankle, and the wolf twists his neck, sweeping her off her feet.
Erlathan & CFL
Hanlin
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Kelseph (red)
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
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Shayle (maroon)
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Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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4 Hell Ravens
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Bishop activates the decanter of endless water, extinguishing the last flaming brazier.
The four hell ravens unleash a chorus of "Caws!" and dive at Lord Braggett, defending their mistress. Sir Kibble snaps at the crows, sparing his rider from their sharp beaks.
Erlathan & CFL
Hanlin
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Kelseph (red)
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
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Shayle (maroon)
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Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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4 Hell Ravens
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Watching the feathery demon fly the coop, Hanlin hopes in his heart that she is indeed gone. He turns his attention to the remaining buzzards. "Time to clean the nest Iomedae! Grant me the power to clean this mess up once and for all." He raises his tattooed palm skyward and a wave of golden light erupts, spreading out in all directions for 30 feet. Hanlin then draws his longsword with a ring of steel.
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Hanlin presents his divine focus, calls upon his goddess to cleanse away evil outsiders, and channels the power of Iomedae.
The four hell ravens squawk in surprise. Three of them vanish before their avian bodies hit the dirt. The indignant blue crow scans the summit, looking for the cause of its injury.
Erlathan & CFL
Hanlin
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Kelseph (red)
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
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Shayle (maroon)
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Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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Hell Raven
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Erlathan dials up another celestial minion, while CFL emits another pair of light rays. One of the beams strikes Kelseph across her thigh. The fallen orc screams in pain.
Kelseph, desperation and fear contorting her face into a crazed scowl, adopts a total defensive posture and struggles to her feet, then tries to step away from her attackers.
Erlathan & CFL
Hanlin
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Kelseph (red)
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Nina & Inky
Vegazi
Bishop
Lord Braggett & Sir Kibble
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Hell Raven
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"That takes care of the peons! Now, time for the main event," Nina remarks with a determined smile as she gently squeezes Inky with her knees, the long-established signal between the two of them. As Nina brings her lance down, Inky utters a fearsome growl and charges toward the prone Kelseph...
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Kibble snaps at Kelsephs's toes as she scrambles away and gets back to her feet, and Lord Braggett makes the best of the opportunity, "Haha! You are no match for a fully trained knight... Take that!" He cheers, whirling his flail this way and that, not giving the Hell's Fury leader a moment of respite as his comrades surround her.
Kibble:
Standard action: Attack Kelseph
Kibble:
Standard action: Attack Kelseph
The first time Kibble is hit in a round, Braggett will use the Mounted Combat feat, and as an immediate action to try and negate any damage. The hit is negated if the Ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll.
For the first two adjacent allies (including Braggett) who are targeted for an attack, Kibble will use the Bodyguard feat to use an AoO and boost their AC.
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As Kelseph struggles to her feet, both Lord Braggett and Sir Kibble connect with flail and tooth. Kelseph's death rattle echoes around the misty mountain top. The sole surviving hell raven proclaims her violent passing from this world to the infernal next.
Vegazi grabs her dead mother's bow and looses an arrow at the hell raven. It detonates in an explosion of feathers and vanishes.
The erinyes, Shayle, reappears, standing at ease on a large boulder at the northwest corner of the summit, long-nailed fingers and hands applauding. "Congratulations! You've slain Kelseph, and I'm well rid of her. I admire raw talent and skilled killers. You have more than proven yourselves."
She smiles, and cold shivers course down your spine. "I'm willing to offer you a bargain."
"At the end of the day, I never cared about Kelseph’s grand dreams of leading an orc tribe in the Hold of Belkzen," she waves her hand, dismissing the foolish notion. "I seek only the blood I was promised when I made my pact with Kelseph."
She sighs, looking down at the corpse of her former minion. "And with the orc matriarch defeated," she looks back up and treats you to her penetrating gaze, "I'd like you and Vegazi to complete the arrangement."
"If you convince Vegazi to sacrifice herself in my name," she gives you a seductive smile, "I can grant you even greater powers than those I bestowed upon Kelseph."
"So what do you say? Can I get a 'Hell, Yeah'?"
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Nina snaps out of the brief reverie she'd had, where she and Inky had performed a glorious charge against Kelseph as the foul orc attempted to get to her feet. But it seemed Lord Braggett had beaten her to it. Oh well, great minds think alike!
"Um...no..." Nina responds, slowly. "But maybe I've got something else for you here, let me see..." the gnome continues, balancing her lance across Inky's shoulders as she makes a big show of looking in her pockets. Her expression brightens. "Ah! Here we go!"
She holds up both hands, middle finger on each raised. "These endangered birds! Only two left!"
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Nina shocks the erinyes with her impudence and flat-out refusal to accept her offer. Lord Bragget conveys his own rejection of the bargain with a few antagonistic twirls of his silver flail.
Vegazi is stunned by your friendship, loyalty and your faith in her. "With friends such as these, I believe we can end your evil plotting in this world, fiend!"
Bending down to pick up one of her mother's arrows spilling out of her quiver, Vegazi grips Angelfall, her mother's ebony composite longbow, black feathers adorning its tips. Rising as she draws back the string, the bow gives off the faint scent of brimstone. She looses an arrow at the devil in tight, black leather. The missile almost knocks Shayle down.
Trembling in fury, Shayle flies into a rage. She raises her hands above her head, and the iron braziers ignite once more, bright orange-red flames replacing the dim green fire you saw earlier. No ravens nor any other hellish creatures emerge from the flames. Their light bathes the fiend in hellish light, her perfect skin glowing, infused with magnificent power.
Erlathan & CFL
Vegazi
Hanlin
Lord Bragget & Sir Kibble
Nina & Inky
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Shayle
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Bishop
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Nina urges her mount toward the erinyes, and Incandescence pads down the summit's carved stone steps and over to the base of the boulder Shayle is standing on. Her lance strikes the fiend, but the tip glances off her infernal protections.
Erlathan & CFL
Vegazi
Hanlin
Lord Bragget & Sir Kibble
Nina & Inky
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Shayle (-4)
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Bishop
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Erlathan bellows a laugh. "Oh, Nina. Hilarious, honestly. It's not every day that you see a gnome flip off a devil!"
A soft light breaks the dark clouds above, and the image of a glowing snake slowly floats down from the heavens. It stops gracefully on the ground, and the silhouette turns into a large, amber constrictor snake.
"Ah, just the friend I was looking for. The quarterstaff of entwined serpents needed a mother figure, and here you are, Viperess. Now, go! Use your wrap attack! Oh, and CFL, do that cool thing with the beams."
His minions obey. CFL fires a set of rays...
While Viperess lunges at the erinyes, holy light glinting off of her fangs.
"That's the way! Oh, and if you thought I was done, I've got my signature move left!" He points his staff just as he'd done so many times before, and two serpent missiles shoot from its end.
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CFL emits two light rays; one of them reflects off the stone at the devil's feet, but the other sears the arm of the erinyes, and she hurls an infernal curse at the lantern archon.
A celestial constrictor snake with a thick, muscular body and bright copper scales decorated with shimmering bronze stripes, descends from the heavens. It strikes at the fiend, but its fangs narrowly miss.
Erlathan racks his staff of entwined serpents with an audible chung! chung! The arcanist discharges two more serpentine bolts of arcane energy at Shayle. The black and white missiles fizzle before they can hit.
Erlathan & CFL & Viperess
Vegazi
Hanlin
Lord Bragget & Sir Kibble
Nina & Inky
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Shayle
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Bishop
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Hanlin hustles towards the she devil, chuckling a bit at Nina's overwhelming response. "Like the Lady said. I think we'll side with Vegazi on this one. If you need orcish blood maybe you should just collect a bit from her mother."
As the braziers relight, Hanlin frowns and conjures up another douse of water on the southwestern one to try to snuff it. Just in case.