"But!" Well so much for that idea...
Seeing Hieronymous charge into the room and the sudden appearance of the Sinspawn, Garrokmal abandons the idea of using his longbow. He drops it to the ground and rushes at the Sinspawn, readying his warhammer as he does so.
Garrok strides across the room like a giant to bring his mace down on the head of the hideous beast spawn. The metal ball bounces off its skull and thrashes its ugly head in protest.
The thief moves carefully around the perimeter of the room, moving up the stairs to come around behind the quasit, hoping she is too busy to notice.
The sinspawn flails at Garrokmal in a flurry of teeth and claws.
Its flailing pays off as Garrokmal is raked with cuts and bruises.
"Ungh!" Garrokmal's size is no help against a flurry of claws and teeth.
The quasit looks startled by your headlong charge into the room and gets a look of concentration
on her face and then vanishes from view.
Seeing the Quasit disappear, Zafzalurg is struck with an idea and unslings his backpack. He drops the bow and pulls out a container of powder, deftly removing the lid.
"I've got another in the open pocket, Lady Katrina, should you want it. The powder has no magic properties, but in a pinch might outline the unseen."
Zafzalurg unhooks the mace at his belt and, with powder and weapon at the ready, prepares for the Quasit's attack.
His greatest fear realized, Hieronymous puts aside his first instinct, to jump after it. Hearing Zaf talk about powder, he casts Create water and flings it in the general direction of the quasit's last known location.
Hieronymous flings the water at where the quasit was when she vanished. You see droplets spatter off the floor, walls, and the nearby sinspawn, but no sign as to where she was just a moment before.
Vexed by the disappearance of your foe, Katarina takes her aggression out on the Sinspawn, she speaks a word of magic and a dark cloud settles down around the creature's head.
Seemingly immune, the magical smoke disperses from around its head.
Katarina
Garrok
Erin
Sinspawn
Quasit
Zaf
Garrokmal is focused on the Sinspawn when the Quasit vanishes. One second she's there, the next, he glances over - "What in the nine hells..."
No time to look for it - maybe after I've crushed this abomination... Without further consideration, he attacks the Sinspawn with his warhammer.
In his confusion, Garrok loses focus and misses the creature.
Seeing the quasit disappear, Erin decides to go after the sinspawn instead and works her way carefully behind it. She swings with her rapier, hoping to skewer it.
Occupied with the large barbarian, the sinspawn notices the woman behind him too late as her blade sinks into its back, but the creatures rage is evident and seems to be all that keeps it going as black blood pools around it.
Injured and desperate, it lashes back at its attacker.
The creature falters from its wounds and fails to land any significant blows on the agile woman.
Over the fracas of battle you can faintly hear the sound of chanting coming from a reedy female voice somewhere in the room.
Fearing the culmination of the chanting, Zafzalurg attempts to locate the source of the sound...
...and throw the container of powder at it, hoping the cloud will not only highlight the quasit, but the resulting cloud will cause it to choke and interrupt the spell.
Using his keen gnomish hearing, Zaf cocks his head to one side and listens to the chanting.
Thinking he knows the creature's location, he hauls back and throws a container of powder at the ceiling and it explodes into a shower of color. The particles rain down outlining a small flying figure in the center of the room, hovering near the ceiling while the pool in the center is streaked with color.
Hieronymous, seeing the quasit up in the air and the color in the pool, says, "Let's see what happens when I water things down a bit."
He casts create water into the pool.
Hieronymous creates water and directs it at the pool, the colors run, but not much else happens.
Garrokmal sees the faint outline of the Quasit form near the ceiling and hears its continued chanting... "Good one, master gnome! This will shut the thing up, haha!" Taking advantage of his enormity, he swings his warhammer in a high arc at the demon.
Garrok swipes with his massive longsword at the swirling pigments where it appears the quasit is flying but the sword only slices through the empty air.
Katarina directs a wickedly evil scowl at the Sinspawn.
Thrown off balance by Katarina's magic, the Sinspawn stumbles around as Erin aims another strike with her rapier.
Erin slides her rapier through the Sinspawns back and through the creatures heart. It clutches its chest and drops to the floor, dead before it hits.
Suddenly, the low chanting stops and from the darkness below the pulpit, a giant spider slithers out to join the fray, lunging at Garrok's large feet.
At the same instant, while Garrok's attention is turned on the spider, the quasit appears again and a sickly green ray shoots forth from her outstretched claw at Hieronymous. He feels the strength drain from him as the beam's power takes hold.
Hieronymous looks up in shock as the quasit shoots him with the ghastly green ray.
He feels the energy drain him, but still feels ready to do his part, he yells at the quasit, "Is that all you got?"
Garrokmal's face contorts into a mask of anger and frustration... I know I had her! But that wasn't bad for an archaeologist... What fresh Hell is this now? "Gah!" he exclaims as the spider bites him...
He feels the fangs in his leg, but manages to bend away before the poison can take hold.
With the Sinspawn dispatched and the spider on the far side of the pool, Zafzalurg keeps his focus on the quasit. He looks down at his shortbow on the floor, then remembering even Garrok and his warhammer hadn't struck home, decides on a different tactic.
Maybe I can distract it enough so that my friends have a better chance of bringing the creature down.
The gnome quietly starts a spell.
Hieronymous turns toward the spider and attempts to smack it with his mace, grunting with the effort it takes thanks to his diminished strength.
"Urrrgh!"
Despite feeling so week he grins as the mace strikes his target.
Hieronymous bashes the spider with his mace, the beastly creature takes the full force with its hairy abdomen then chitters as it shakes off the blow.
Katarina, now able to see the quasit, directs her witch magic at, leveling her hexing gaze at the demon.
There's no visible effect from Katarina's magic, but she yells out "I've weakened her!" with her typical glee.
"I see you now, gnat!"
Garrokmal steps in the quasit's direction and, blessed with both reach and vision, takes an earnest swing at the demon.
Garrok swipes his warhammer through air still swirling with a cloud of pigment but misses the quasit as she darts around his blow.
Seeing Garrok miss, Erin pulls a dagger from its sheath and hurls it at the quasit.
The dagger clatters off the walls, narrowly missing Zaf and Katarina.
The spider turns to bite at Hieronymous after the bashing it took.
It misses as it lunges for him.
The quasit unfurls its wings to full length and bares her fangs and claws, making for an imposing display.
rounds
rounds
rounds
Zafzalurg, unprepared for the creature's true form, bolts out the double doors and into the preceding chamber. He thinks he hears the screaming of a small child, a girl, somewhere in the distance, before realizing the shrieking is, in fact, coming from him.
>
>
>
Swooping in from out of nowhere, the eagle assails the quasit with wickedly sharp claws and beak but the tough hide of the demon turns its blows, like striking tough hide.
before realizing the shrieking is, in fact, coming from him.
Hieronymous recoils in terror, "There's no way to win, she's going to kill us all!"
With nowhere to run, he moves to the nearest corner and casts a spell to help him hide.
A dense mist boils forth from where Hieronymous stands to rapidly fill the room. Everything fills with a white fog that is incredibly difficult to see through and you quickly lose track of where both you and your friends were in the chaos.
Katarina blows a fringe of hair from her face with an obvious frustrated scowl. She cackles, keeping her hold on the quasit active. Then turns and attempts to charm Zaf into a restful slumber to calm his nerves.
Garrokmal feels a chill run down his spine, but maintains his calm upon seeing the quasit's display... He sees his friends run in fear, and after a moment of careful consideration of the deep gashes in his legs and arms, decides he's not getting any help from anyone but himself right now.
He quickly reaches into his belt pouch with his free hand, pulls out the potion of Cure Light Wounds and downs it in a single smooth motion.
He feels a bit of strength return to his body... But if we don't kill this thing soon it's going to feast on our bones tonight...
Erin stumbles through the fog in fear attempting to find her way to flee from the quasit and the spider and manages to make her way to the top of the stairs.
The spider chitters still at Garrok's feet and tries to bite him once more even through the dense fog.
The spider misses in the fog and confusion.
Zafzalurg hears Katri... zzzzzzzzzzzz
Meanwhile, in the world of the conscious, the eagle attempts to attack the quasit.
>
>
>
The little demon seems to have disappeared again. The eagle searches for her, attempting to obey its commands.
In the fog and confusion the eagle finds nothing.
Hieronymous sits in the corner, too terrified to move or speak, I know the mist is not enough, there's no way we're going to survive, I wish she would just find me and end this!
He tries to push himself into the wall, willing himself to be part of the earth he so dearly loves, to no avail.
Katarina concentrates, keeping the magic working on her foe, then she searches for the any movement emerging from the dense fog.
No longer able to see the quasit, Garrok swings his hammer at the spider still at his feet.
He sees the spider but swings wide, anyway. In frustration, he takes a step toward clear air.
Erin stumbles through the fog, trying to find her way back to clear air, finally managing to make her way down the steps.
Suddenly the quasit reappears across the room and a quick incantation flies from its mouth in the demonic tongue.
As the flying demon utters the final syllable, Katarina falls to the ground, seemingly unconscious. In the same instance, the spider that's been attacking, disintigrates into grains of black sand that blow away in an ethereal wind.
Hieronymous comes to his senses, realizing that he must have been affected by some sort of spell or affect from the quasit, She is scary, but that scary.
Unsure where he is or what is going on, he makes his way for the entrance by keeping the wall to his left.
Garrokmal doesn't have the energy for a full-on Barbarian Rage, so instead, he just gets angry... "I hear you, demon!" He strides across the room toward the quasit, and seeing her, he drops his warhammer to the ground and tries to get his very large arms wrapped around her wings.
Finished with the quasit's tricks, Garrok throws down his weapons and moves in on the much smaller quarry. He grabs the quasit in one massive hand and wrestles it to the ground as she struggles to escape.
Erin, still in the clutches of her fear, runs for the door as fast as she can.
The quasit struggles attempting to slip free from the giant barbarian holding her to the ground. She spits and screams who knows what in some demonic language.
Obviously outmatched, she's unable to slip out of his grasp.
Not sure what he's going to find as the sleep spell sloughs off him, Zafzalurg, mace in hand, cautiously enters the main hall once more. I will have to have a conversation with Katarina and her definition of "helping."
Seeing the nasty little creature grappled by the utterly massive Garrok, the gnome confidently sidles up next to them, prepared to strike at the first opening.
Hieronmyous moves out of the mist and sees the quasit grappled by Garrokmal, Now's my chance! he strikes the quasit with his mace.
Ugh, I missed!, perhaps we will not survive this...
As he continues to hold the quasit in place, he glances around and wonders where his companions are... They were here a second ago... Ah - there's one!
He sees Hieronymous come out of the mist and swings his mace fruitlessly at the helpless demon. "We're not going to kill it with a gentle breeze! Where are the others?! Rrrraaah!"
With that, he attempts to firm up his grip on the quasit.
Locked securely in place, he tries to squeeze the life right out of it.
As the thing squirms in his grip, he whispers from behind its head... "You're going to pay for what you've done to our town...
Garrok squeezes, attempting to squash the little whelp beneath him, but the creature, born from the abyss is obviously more durable than simple mortal matter. It feels as if he's attempting to crack an anvil between his arms, but the increased pitch of the creatures whining tells him that its bones are close to cracking.
Aware once again of her surroundings and no longer overcome by fear, Erin moves back into the room looking to aid her friends. She spots the quasit finally held beneath Garrok and moves in to help finish the beast off.
The little monster tries once more to wriggle free.
Well, this is a tight squeeze. Still a fairly straightforward game of hit the thing 'til it stops moving. But first...
"Oi, we're all here, Garrok. Well, those of us what aren't asleep or enterrored. I know I'm not boulder-sized, but I'm no wee brownie either."
Feeling slightly vindicated, Zafzalurg brings his mace around to squarely thump the quasit.
Hieronymous tries to find a spot on the quasit that isn't blocked by orc.
He blinks his eyes and shakes his head in frustration.
Katarina stirs awake as the spell on her wears off. She sees the group gathered around the quasit attempting to subdue her and unleashes a powerful hex toward the foe.
The tiny witch frowns in horror as her spell slides off the demon.
"I won't be able to hold this thing all day!" Garrokmal growls in frustration... He tries to keep the quasit firmly in place...
His oversized arms have an iron lock - he uses it to further crush the evil thing.
"Give up - return to the foul god that made you..."