Zukhan goes after bandit #4 pushing the advantage created by the man's misstep. Baring his fangs, the Asaatthi smiles. "Surprise human! Your spells have no effect on me!"
Round Two
Brother Theo stabs back at the bandit assaulting him, but the thug dodges aside just in the nick of time! While the cleric's other assailant tries to get the drop on him the shining spear of Madriel flies through the air as if thrown by a divine hand and skewers the bandit where he stands! The masked thug falls to the ground, the life leaving his eyes.
Zukhan lunges at the reeling bandit, his blades easily puncturing the bandit's light armor and laying him out in the road!
Meanwhile, Djal's blades puncture the bandits' leader and cut short any retort the overconfident brigand may have been preparing. The brigand spits blood, gripping his battle axe with both hands.
The wounded bandit dives at Brother Theo with suicidal abandon, fury clouding his eyes under a mask of blood! The priest fends off his wild blows with his shield, but the bandit keeps coming- until a stone flies precisely over Theo's shoulder and into the bandit's throat! The cleric's assailant falls to the road like a dropped sack with one final gasp! Lhienne darts back across the road and into a new hiding position!
Despite the tables clearly being turned on their ambush, the bandit leader and his companion do not back down or even give the slightest indication of fleeing.
The remaining bandit dives at Djal, trying to pin the bard's arms.
Djal's arms are pinned as the masked bandit grabs him, struggling to bring his short sword to the troubadour's neck!
With a wave of the lead bandit's hand, a ghostly battle axe of crackling black lightning appears beside Zukhan while the leader rushes the ranger with his battle axe in a two-handed grip!
But Zukhan is far too swift in his natural element, already anticipating the bandit's attack and easily dodging aside!
Round Three actions!
"Your skill with an axe is as pitiful as your weak human magic. And you thought to take the relics from us?"
Brother Theo concentrates his attacks on the foul bandit leader, who he now knows is a follower of some evil deity.
"May the spear of Madriel smite you!"
Spirit Weapon Attack:
Damage:
Brother Theo:
Damage:
Trying to draw some fire from her friends and now their numbers have been thinned out Lhienne darts from cover "You wanted this?" she thrusts the Dagger of Spiragos at the leader (or the remaining bandit, if he's down from the other's attacks.
Round Three
Zukhan slashes the bandit leader across the chest, sending him reeling. Brother Theodor runs into the melee, stabbing the spellcaster with his own spear while his own spiritual weapon runs him through. With a choke, the bandit leader falls as his spirit axe dissipates.
Djal struggles in the bandit's grip while Lhienne runs to his aid. Just as it seems the bandit has the upper hand, Djal deftly reverses the grip on his rapier and stabs it through his assailant's lung. The masked thug's grip relaxes as he slumps off the bard's back.
Bodies litter the road and all is quiet while you clean the blood from your weapons.
Breathing heavy and dispelling his own spiritual weapon, with a prayer of thanks to Madriel, Brother Theodor looks over the battlefield.
"Is everyone O.K.? Anyone wounded? How did they know about the weapons and what power was that bandit calling upon to manifest a sacred weapon like that?"
Theo begins to search the bodies to see if they might hold a clue.
"I don't know, but it doesn't bode well for us." Lhienne assists Brother Theodor in checking for any clues on the bodies.
Besides their leather armor and weapons (scimitars, hand axes, short swords and one battle axe) the bandits have a combined total of 110 gp in their belt pouches. None of them have insignia, a family name or a crest of any kind on their clothing or anything denoting a bandit gang. On a hunch, Lhienne tugs the shirt from one of the bandits and finds a crude brand on their chest, just below the collar bone. It looks like a cloven shield.
Brother Theo quickly binds his own wounds before examining the marks on the dead bandit.
Healing Kit: for
Religion:
"Vangalites! I am not surprised that they would sink so low as to attack us! The god of Destruction and disease is after these artifacts, it would seem!"
"Great, don't suppose we know if they're using magic to track us or just patrolling roads?"
"They set their lives on a dark path, and now have paid for their brutality. Hide the bodies, but let us not waste time in burying them...they do not deserve it and we do not have the luxury to waste time. We must get to my temple with all haste before more of these villains can find us!"
Zukhan nods. "I agree, we shouldn't tarry. Vangalites are a dangerous foe. Let's get to town as soon as possible so that we can be rid of these things."
After dividing up their cash, you roll the corpses out of the road and continue on your way. The rest of the day is quite windy, but uneventful. You find a likely campsite and bed down for the evening after setting a watch rotation.
The night is uncharacteristically cold, but it passes uneventfully and each of you wakes relatively well-rested. The morning is grey and cloudy, with the rumble of thunder in the distance. You prepare your cloaks and make sure your provisions are watertight before the storm can come in.
A patter of rain starts and you immediately notice something is wrong. The rain is thick, red and disturbingly warm. There's a clink off of Brother Theo's scale armor- Zukhan catches what he assumes would be a hailstone out of the air and finds that it's in fact a small chunk of white enamel, like a tooth.
A minute or so after the bloody rain starts, you begin to feel completely famished despite having breakfast less than an hour ago.
Nature:
"Some titan-cursed thing no doubt, but for some reason, I am starving! Let's stop for a bit so I can get a bite to eat...please?"
Brother Theo has stopped moving and is beginning to tear into his pack looking for more food.
Lhienne looks around for shelter, anything that would keep most of the rain off them. She's not sure if the hunger is coincidence or an effect of whatever this rain is, but walking through a rain of blood doesn't sound like a good idea regardless.
"If we can get out of this rain, I'll cook something for you, let's move."
Brother Theo devours a full day of rations as fast as he can. While he's momentarily satisfied, he almost immediately starts getting hungry again. The rest of you get more and more hungry with each passing moment- Djal and Lhienne haven't felt this hungry since they were living on the streets or enslaved in Dunahnae, respectively.
Perception:
"Yes, let's find a way out of this."
Your stomachs protesting with every step, you start searching for someplace, anyplace, to hole up until the bloody rain stops. To your good fortune, Zukhan and Lhienne spots a disused cart path and figure it must lead to some kind of shelter. Running down the path and shoving rations into your faces, you pass several signs in Ledean- Bright Prospects Mine Closed. On your left, you spot a ramshackle hut that must have once been a mine office or barrack. The roof sags in the middle, but it's probably enough shelter for a few hours. Further down the trail, you spot a boarded up tunnel with wooden supports- likely the mine itself.
"Look up ahead, an old mine office. Let's hole up there and dry off. Maybe there will be some place clean up and get this disgusting rain off of our skin."
Lhienne rushes towards the building, more concerned for getting out of the rain than worried about any potential occupants.
"Agreed"
Assuming no immediate threat presents itself upon entry she will immediately try and wash/rub off any residue from the rain.
You run to the small hut, throwing the rotting wooden door open with relief. It’s a small one-story building, about twenty feet by forty feet long. The roof is sagging and some drips hit the floor in the center of the hut, but it seems better than nothing. A nearly broken row of bunks line the wall opposite the door, with the tattered remnants of a privacy curtain hanging from a frayed rope strung across the hut. On the right is a stone hearth and chimney that look to have had better days and on the left is a desk and low shelf, all the drawers turned out and emptied on the floor. Leaves and other debris litter the floor and some field mice scurry under the bunks as you try to get the ichor off of your clothes.
Zukhan towels off as well, getting as much of the blood off of him as possible. "The hearth is in some disrepair, but I think it should still be fine for a fire. Might as well warm up while we wait for this weather to pass." The Asaatthi gathers up bits of wood from the broken desk drawers and starts a campfire in the fireplace.
If needed:
With a small effort, Zukhan gets a fire started in the hearth. Lacking a chimney, he's careful to make sure the small holes in the walls are clear of any debris that would have held all the smoke in.
Lhienne gets her cooking supplies out and ready, all of you nearly hungry enough to just eat the raw ingredients. But outside of the storm, the need is less urgent.
While you're cooking and getting cleaned up, you hear the sound of hurried footsteps approaching- someone growls in Ledean outside:
"Into the house! It's not letting up!"
Lhienne slips into whatever cover she can find
She's reluctant to turn away people seeking shelter from this awful weather, but if they've been out in the rain, who knows how far they've been driven...
The door slams open and in step four thoroughly soaked slitherin . The first two are fairly average looking slitherin- slim and agile-looking, clad in leather armor and bearing short swords and bows. Behind them steps the largest slitherin you've ever seen. His dark fur is soaked with the bloody rain, hide armor covered in teeth and rattling bones and a greataxe resting on his back. The largest of them holds the fourth slitherin dressed in soaked through robes- the robed rat person struggles and hisses in the largest one's grasp, a mad edge to his gaze. Fortunately, the large slitherin holds him firmly.
The three sane looking slitherin are taken aback at your presence, but after Djal's welcome speech they visibly relax. The largest slitherin speaks, his voice booming and heavily-accented.
"We thank you, then. This must be the only shelter for miles from this blasted Vorestorm. You got any food to spare? Our Engineer couldn't take the hunger as long as us..."
Zukhan tosses the large ratman a sheet from one of the beds. "We have a small bit of extra food, but dry yourselves. Clean that cursed rain from your skins and the hunger will fade."
The burly slitherin takes the sheet and wrestles the struggling robed slitherin to wipe the blood rain off of him. Despite Zukhan's prognosis, the infuriated ratman continues to snap at his caretaker.
"The blood rain, the scourge of Gaurak.", the huge slitherin grumbles. The two hunters hiss and lower their ears, as does the large one at the Titan's name. "Makes you feel like you're starved until it makes you mad- we could tough it out longer than Varaj. We get food in him, he should stop..."
Zukhan passes a couple of rations over to the large slitherine. "Here, give him these. We felt the hunger as well, but got inside quickly enough."
The burly slitherin grunts his thanks before shoving the hard tack and dried meat into Varaj the engineer's mouth. After the robed slitherin finishes chewing and swallowing, he starts to mellow.
"... the hunger, like I'd never felt. Sorry, Warleader.", the slim ratman says as the large one puts him down.
"Bad luck is all. Had our hunt been better we'd not have been this desperate.", one of the slitherin hunters chimes in.
The burly ratman pats the engineer on the back.
"You know not of Gaurak? What are they teaching you city folk? The Glutton's teeth were plucked during the Divine War before we were all born, back when all of us Slitherin were slaves to the Titans. The Gods buried him under a mountain and one of his teeth fell here. But the land twists to the Titans' whims, still, even after their defeat. That's why we get these Vorestorms and Slime Rains and such. It's Gaurak's influence still cursing us."
The big one puffs up his chest.
"I am Molik, warleader and champion of the Cheery Brine Warren. This is Abdrek and Corlu, hunters on this expedition of ours. Our hungry boy is Viraj. Lucky for us we found you or Viraj may have had to feast on splinters!"
Brother Theodor finally begins to feel better once again as the slime is removed from him and the food is placed in his stomach.
"That story sounds vaguely familiar to me now that you have told it...I am sorry that the hunger drove all thoughts from my mind."
"An honour to meet you! Now, this is fascinating! I've never seen the Slime Rain. What is it?" Djal asks.
Abdrek, cleaning the blood from his blonde fur, replies: "Some jelly-like crap falls from the sky. Sometimes it combines into an ooze or a big cube of slime that'll digest anything around it. Another of the Glutton's curses."
The other hunter, Corlu, crosses her arms and leans against the shack wall.
"So... what are you lot doing out here? This isn't your mine, is it?"
Headed to Fangsfall from Creagfort. The mine isn't ours, though it seems like to know what's in it. I was about to check through some of these papers when you all arrived"
With that, the Asaatthi begins rifling through the scattered contents of the overturned desk drawers.
Zukhan finds the drawers to be completely bare- whoever lived here cleaned the place out pretty thoroughly before moving on.
"The Cheery Brine Warren needs to expand- even with most of us away foraging or hunting at any given time we're running out of room.", the young engineer replies. "Same way all over, right? So we're here to see what we can repurpose out of these old mines."
Lhienne causually steps out of hiding, "Seems like no-one's using it. We have other places to be, once this lets up."
The slitherin give a start at the sight of Lhienne appearing from almost nowhere. The hunters give each other a rueful look.
"Impressive.", Corlu says.
Molik, the huge ratman grumbles.
"Hmph. You could teach our hunters a thing or two about sneaking, seems. Especially since they're beyond help as look-outs, apparently."
Abdrek, the other hunter, rolls his eyes.
"Never mind our brave Warleader. He's just mad there's nothing to wrestle besides Viraj."
"Ha ha, don't be too embarrassed, Lhienne here is not seen if she doesn't want to be." Zukhan looks to his companions. "I wouldn't mind taking a quick trip through the cave before we head back to Fangsfall if the rest of you are interested?"