| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Seeing Bernard drop Vibenia forgoes struggling with the webbing, instead opting to take careful aim, firing a shot at the kobold directly in front of her.
Harassed by Nisany and her dagger, the foremost warrior is left open to a devastating shot from Vibenia. A bolt rips through its scaly cheek, fragmenting the bone beneath. It stumbles back, clutching its wounded face, only to get speared from behind by Nighttail. Only barely clinging on to its wretched life, the wounded kobold is able to scratch Nighttail on her bicep. The rest of the kobolds muster alongside it, but do not manage to replicate their comrade's success.
Roaghaz barely stops to gasp for air between his invocations, unleashing a near continuous stream of eldritch projectiles at his nemesis. After withstanding yet another barrage, Nighttail finally crumbles under the weight of her wounds, spinning in the air before crashing into a heap next to Hak. The chief cackles with glee, arcane energies crackling at his fingertips as he turns to face the others.
"Behold the power of True Dragon-Heir!" he declares loudly. "Softskins will fall, just like glib Nighttail! Great Lord Aeteperax will rule all!"
You and your Greataxe Loaded Ate-A-Pie can shove it!" Syksy calls out as she steps back into the room and swings at at the guard.
Khardir remains stuck.
Attempting to step into the chamber, Vibenia curses again at she finds herself entangled by the last of the webbing. Concentrating she takes her time, freeing herself of the irritating strands.
Flinching at Syksy's voice and the glint of metal far to close to her head. Glancing back down at Bernard before tightening her grip on her shiny dagger.
Letting out a strangled growl of frustration, "Can't you all just die!"
Nisany clashes with one of the wounded warriors, neither of them managing to harm the other. Meanwhile, Syksy rushes the other one, severing its head with one clean swipe. As it falls, the kobolds to its sides balk for a moment, only to be reprimanded by their master.
"Սպանեք անպաշտպանին, կամ մեռնում!" screams the chief.
The remaining hunter immediately lunges for Syksy, slashing her across the forearm with near-religious fervour. Roaghaz follows this up with another blast of arcane force, each hit sending a cascade of green sparks across the Hellknight's armour. The energy at his fingertips seems to be crackling less intensely, however, as if he were burning through it too fast for it to replenish completely.
Vibenia finally steps clear of the webbing, taking a quick shot at Roaghaz, noting the seemingly depleting energy.
Still stuck.
Vibenia's bolt is deflected by some invisible force—the air around Roaghaz seems to ripple at the impact, leaving him unharmed. Meanwhile, Nisany and Syksy continue to tangle with the chief's minions, neither side managing to push the other back in any significant fashion.
Disregarding Vibenia's attack, Roaghaz channels his gathered energies at Syksy, resulting in yet another volley of shimmering projectiles. However, this seems to finally exhaust his reserves of eldritch power, the green flames at his fingertips burning out with a sizzle. The kobold chief looks visibly exhausted, slumping against the wall. He flexes his clawed fingers, which seem to be giving off smoke.
Khardir barely manages to struggle to the end of the tunnel.
Syksy slumps to the ground, causing a lot of clattering noise as she does.
Letting out an loud growl in frustration. I have lost my mind but nothing else is working. Moving past Syksy's limp arm and lashing out at the kobold to her right. "Some one get them out of the room."
Cursing in frustration as another shot gets stopped by the same barrier, Vibenia drops her crossbow drawing her sword as she moves to stand over Nighttail, to get her out of the room or at least stop her from bleeding out.
Nisany leaps into battle, stabbing one of the remaining kobolds in its side. Taken aback by the sudden ferocity of the little gnome, neither of her opponents can muster a proper counterattack. As she is joined by Vibenia, their will to fight seems to wane even further.
Roaghaz seems to have realised that the battle is not yet won. He mutters to himself, drawing on an inner reserve of power. Suddenly, there seem to be multiples of him—three, to be exact—each slightly overlapping the others. Looking directly at this spatial oddity is enough to cause a mild headache.
Desperate to end this as quickly as possible, Vibenia attacks the kobold in front of her with a wicked slash.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Khardir leans down and stabilizes Nighttail.
Smiling at the failed attempts of the kobolds. That's right ugly. Focus on me." Lashing out again with her dagger at the kobold on her left.
Vibenia slays the remaining hunter, deftly cutting it down with her sword. Nisany continues to tangle with the warrior standing over Bernard, taking a spear to the side for her efforts. Meanwhile, the kobolds' chief looks on, increasingly flabbergasted at his impending failure.
"No!" screams Roaghaz. "You will die! Lord Aeteperax demands it!"
The chief dashes forwards, each of his illusionary duplicates displaying the same grotesque transformations: his teeth stretch into vicious fangs, and his nails into claws capable of rending flesh from bone. He charges Vibenia, who only just dances away from his now-slobbering jaws.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Khardir touches Syksy and stabilizes her.
Breathing a sigh of relief as she picks up on Khardir saving their downed companions behind her, Vibenia focuses her full attention of the slavering madman and his duplicates before her.
[oooc]Kick his ass.[/ooc]
Gasping at the pain blooming just below her ribs. Blinking slowly and feeling dizzy for a moment. Am I going to die here too?
Shadows move behind her and there are far to many same faced kobolds behind her. This small hoard is much more terrifying that the single foe that is doing a good job of trying to kill her. I hate caves!
Panic swirls with adrenaline. Ignoring the pack behind her and trying to take out a foe she stands a chance against while she is still on her feet. Though as more life's blood runs down her leg her vision wiggles and twists like she is far to deep into her cups.
Nisany continues to keep the warrior busy while Khardir staunches the dying, noting her wounded opponent's apparent willingness to rush over and aid its leader. Too wounded force its way through the gnome, it stumbles at a critical moment, and insteads stabs the air near her left ear.
Meanwhile, Vibenia has better success against Roaghaz. One of his illusionary projections flickers and vanishes as it is met with the undeniable fixedness of steel, with three overlapping figments remaining in opposition to conventional perceivability. The kobold chief fights back like a rabid animal, biting and clawing at the ranger. While he manages to get in a respectable amount of minor scratches, there is little strength behind them—only a few of them are enough to pierce the skin.
Khardir moves to stabilize his friend and shield-companion Bernard.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Come at me you little bastard! If the next strike doesn't get you, the one after that will." Vibenia taunts as she presses the attack on Roaghaz.
At this point, Nisany and the wounded kobold seem hopelessly deadlocked, each of them too battered to make a decisive strike. The gnome scrapes at her opponent's bone armour with her outsized dagger, while it stumbles back, trying to find enough space to employ its spear effectively.
The fight between Roaghaz and Vibenia is somewhat more animated: the ranger lunges forward, obliterating one of the ablative figments with another expert strike. For his part, the kobold chief continues to bite and claw at any semblance of an opening, but few of the frenzied lunges find their marks—even the ones that do are little more than scratches. Slowly but surely, his magical barriers are giving out under Vibenia's onslaught...
Now that his allies are not in immediate danger of death, Khardir steps into the breach to help. It'll take a while to get into a good position, but he brings up his warhammer and makes an experimental swing at the kobold facing Nisany.
"Last chance! If you surrender now we might let you leave to die of old age somewhere, forgotten." Vibenia sneers as she swings again.
Drawing in a ragged breath and trying to ignore the taste of blood on her tongue. This is going so bad. Nothing has gone right since I came to this horrible town.
Tiredly lifting her arm to slash at the kobold in-front of her. Though the shaking in her hands and the blurring of her vision causes the ancient blade to go wide.
Khardir's hammer glances off the wounded warrior's defences, denting the turtle-shell it uses as a shield. Suddenly facing superior numbers, it closes ranks with the rabid Roaghaz, stabbing desperately at Nisany as it goes. More due to luck than anything, the spear scratches Nisany, who tumbles on the ground clutching her now wounded leg. She quickly passes out on the cold stone floor, having lost a lot of blood during the battle.
As Vibenia's swing goes wide, Roaghaz dives in for another series of savage attacks. While the individual wounds continue to be minor, the ranger's arms and legs are now covered in bite-marks and grazes—the injuries are beginning to add up.
"Dangit, I can't heal the gnome while I'm fightin'!" Khardir grumbles.
As if to underscore his point, he utterly crushes his kobold foe.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
In a twisted turn of fate, Khardir's absolutely perfect blow sends a spray of blood and brain directly into the ranger's eyes and mouth, utterly ruining her attack.
"GAAAHHH!!! !#@%!$"
The last of Roaghaz's minions drops like a rock, its skull shattered by Khardir's skillful blow. Even with all of his allies gone, the chief appears to be well past reason and fights on, consumed as he is by his zealous frenzy. He continues to tear into Vibenia, delivering a few more opportunistic scratches as the ranger is distracted by the splatter of gore from Khardir's kill.
Khardir stows his warhammer and pulls out the wand.
The sudden quiet in the chamber is chilling, the only sounds other than her current fight, the labored breathing of the badly injured, and the sounds of Khardir's armor as he moves to administer to their wounded.
Determined to end things, the ranger steps in with a low sweeping strike, her blade targeting one of the two targets before her, hoping for the right one.
Vibenia's low sweep slashes right through the last of Roaghaz's figments, leaving the chief vulnerable. He only seems to double down on his reckless onslaught, biting her arm and swiping her across the cheek with his elongated claws before the ranger has a chance to fall back.
Khardir taps Nisany with the wand, staving off her bleeding.
A contented sigh works its way out of the little gnomes green lips at the slight touch. Taking a deep breath that comes out as a groan. Some wounds are gone but many still remain. Staring up at the ceiling of the cave, "Couldn't have been a bad dream."
Patting her side and feeling around for her dagger. Pushing herself up with another groan. But instead of moving in with a blade she tugs a small vial free and tosses it behind the last kolbold.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Gritting her teeth as she is again wounded, Vibenia brings her blade down in a brutally decisive strike, determined to end this once and for all. "Now you DIE!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Nisany's awakening goes entirely unnoticed by the blood-crazed Roaghaz, as does her bomb—until it detonates behind him. The kobold chief is able to avoid most of the explosion by leaping away, but this gives Vibenia a chance to rush in, skewering him with her sword as he slams against her.
"Curse you, softskins!" he hisses, baring his reddened teeth at the ranger. "Lord Aeteperax will destroy all of you!"
With that, he attempts to sink those very teeth into her shoulder, but only barely manages to bite through the leather. This last ditch effort seems to take all of his remaining strength, causing him to go limp in Vibenia's arms, slumping off her sword onto the blood-slicked cavern floor.
A sudden silence falls over the chamber, broken only by the ragged breathing of the dying and the wounded.
Khardir dutifully taps Bernard with the healing wand.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Tell him we said hello." Vibenia replies as the light fades from the dying kobolds eyes. The ranger shifts her weight, allowing the evil cleric to slide off of her blade, landing in a rapidly growing pool of his own blood.
Looking around at her wounded companions being tended to by Khardir, she considers just how close they'd all come to dying down here. Shifting her grip on her sword, she drives the blade down into the dark priest, determined to end his threat for good.
Falling back on to her butt and wrapping her arms around her knees. Staring at Vibenia finish off the last kolbold before letting her gaze drift around to land on the others. No body died! Pulling the small vial from her waist and drinking it quickly.
Sighing as her muscles relax a little and the some of the ache fades away. "So we are leaving soon rig? Twisting and looking for the friendly kobold. [b]"Where's Nighttail?"
"Blergh," says Bernard, eyes rolling open only to see Khardir gazing patiently down at him. Blood coats his tongue. His body aches, and numerous wounds still clamor for attention.
No matter. He's alive, and with a groan he extends his hand to his friend so that Khardir can help him stand. Rising to his feet, he sways for a moment, hand pressed to his temple, and then takes in the scene.
"Vibenia! You slew the chieftain? Well done! I don't know why I bother to come out when you young folk clearly have all the moxie necessary to take care of business. All I seem to do is fall onto enemy blades and then collapse at the most inconvenient of times..."
He claps Khardir on the shoulder, then moves over to stare down at Roaghaz. Confident that the kobold is dead, he turns to glance at their new ally.
"So, Nighttail. Where does this leave you? Going to claim this... warren... as yours?"