Not sparing any time for the fallen villain or his gooey mess, Toramin clambers up the ladder. (Besides his war mask kept it off his face . . . mostly.)
"People are counting on us! Lets not make them wait."
Bjorkus's chant slows and quiets as the aasimar suffers the mortal wound. The half-minotaur stares in disbelief. How was this sod still alive? That blow would have dropped a bear.
Bjorkus narrows his gaze on the dying anti-paladin. A bluff. The stink of his desperation was all over him.
Strapping his own weapon away, the bull hefts his opponent’s weapon in hand.
”The only other man dyin’ down here is you”, he says to the aasimar with a snort while gesturing for some of the other soldiers to help the Colonel get mobile.
”You got a way to get us through that wall?” the bull asks with a glance at the pudgy elf.
When Toramin gets on the roof he will shout in Dwarven, "Overgi seg, bror, eller gå for å møte våre forfedre!"
In common he calls out to the humans, "Lay down your arms and surrender, your part in this battle is done."
Fine. Torag knows you cannot save them all.
Toramin will move into position where he can best use his reach to defend against the grunts and takes a swing against one of them.
"Stand down!"
With his prize in hand, Bjorkus pokes around the various crates.
Wrapping his hands in a bit of cloth (hoping to insulate them further), Bjorkus grabs one of the wooden buckets and tries filling it in the pool of mysterious super-cold liquid.
Bjorkus's hands get noticeably freezing, but not dangerously so. He strides quickly and throws the liquid against the iron wall. It hits the wall like you expect a bucket of water would hit the wall, and the liquid runs down into the dirt, where the dirt freezes over and a patch solidifies, becoming like a patch of ice. From looking at it, it appears as if the iron hasn't changed.
With the butt of his new axe, Bjorkus tries banging on the frozen section of wall.
The half-minotaur grabs one of the metal buckets and tries the same thing with the magma.
Bjorkus raps the metal haft against the wall, and it produces about the expected effect of hitting metal with metal. He then covers his hands again and tries getting some of the magma, but the instant the metal gets close it simply melts away.
Bjorkus frowns and tosses away the melted bucket.
Bjorkus tries tossing a bucketful of the chilling liquid into the magma.
It wasn't every day a minotaur asked Dalton for advice. Yet he had none to give here that was sound.
"Well now, it seems we have two patches of fluid - very hot and very cold. Combining the two should cause great commotion - an explosion perhaps. That could be dangerous though; being underground isn't a good place to be for explosions!" He adjusts his spectacles and glances to the iron doors. "I could move the lava over to the iron, but it would take me some time to prepare the incantation. No telling if it'll be hot enough to melt the doors, but it should make them malleable - that is, able to be bent and pushed through if there's someone strong about." He eyes Bjorkus up and down.
"Maybe ... ah, yes!" he gestures to the tower shield from their opponent. "Such a shield could protect our muscled minotaur from the heat and give him a good front to push with."
It went without saying the easier option would just be to have the doors opened, but they weren't getting anywhere with Geoffrey's rival. If anyone were to lure the information out of him, he was the man.
Dalton began to poke around the books in the meantime.
Gabriel grimaces at the explosion but manages to avoid the worst of it. He quickly runs out to the doorway and waves to the other soldiers. "We got him. We're going to secure the siege weapon up top, then we're going after the other tower. Be ready! Every second is another life we can save!"
Gabriel quickly follows Toramin up the ladder, and watches in surprise and some relief as he manages to talk down the engineers. He readies himself, swinging at the nearest soldier that closes in on them. He was glad he was wearing gauntlets, otherwise his fingers would be slick with sweat and it would be that much harder to grip his sword.
Bjorkus looks from the half-elf, to the shield, and then to the wall. It wasn't a great plan but it was better than anything he'd come up with. If he had a way to move the magma, it might work.
The bull hefts the massive shield and gestures to the wall.
"Give it a shot. We gotta get through that wall."
Geoffrey sits on a crate in front of the Aasimar, staring him down for a time. "I don't understand how an Aasimar fell to this. Most people get hopeful when they see an Aasimar." The evil being just grins. "I know! I can get so close without arousing suspicious. Killing somebody is one thing, but betraying somebody who trusts you? Oh, I can't explain the ecstasy. The look of fear in their eyes, as they suddenly realize, I'm a threat". Suddenly he reaches out and grabs Geoffrey around the neck with his left hand, and as he stands up you see his wound has mended itself!
Lindale regards the dwarf but moves towards the soldiers instead.
His concentration on adjusting his preparations broken, Dalton became quite frustrated. Enough of these tricks!
;
An inversion of the sphere around the zealot's head crushed into his temple. I'm getting the hang of this now. Practice makes perfect!
Psotheos is warming his cold hand close to the fire, wondering if the anti-paladin worked for the king or another family, when he attacked. Essentially unready, for half a second Psotheos debates about getting some of the liquid cold or firing an arrow. For now his cold hand makes his choice.
He frees his bow from his shoulder, moves aside from the fire, and fires an arrow.
Toramin and Gabriel make short work of two of the soldiers while Lindale overextends and nearly drops his sword. The remaining soldiers surrender, seeing they are clearly outmatched.
Arjax thumps an arrow in the Aasimar's forearm while Dalton unleashes a respectable amount of force on the mans temple. He growls and shakes it off, continuing his death grip on Geoffrey, unleashing a wave of negative energy thru out his body, laughing with bloody teeth the whole time. The soldiers run to Geoffrey's aid, but only one of them manages to land a blow. Despite the Aasimar's new new injuries, no more blood flows from his wounds. It appears as if he has stopped bleeding, but continues to defy death nonetheless.
Does Toramin know how to operate this siege weapon? Are we still holding our portion of the wall? Is there a gate we could open with this siege weapon or some other strategically valuable target we can attack with it?
How does it look like our side is faring?
"C'mon, gentleman, lets get these prisoners restrained and aim this weapon at a more appropriate target," the dwarven paladin instructs his soldiers.
***
This guy just didn't know how to die. Gripping his new weapon in both hands, Bjorkus paws the earth. He was ready to make sure it stuck this time.
"You sodding bastard" the bull roars. "You really wanna die don't you?!"
With an angry snort, the half-minotaur charges after the anti-paladin.
When everyone was down the ladder and back onto the wall Gabriel waves over the soldiers. "One heavy will stay behind with two other soldiers and guard these prisoners. DO NOT harm them unless they try to attack. They surrendered their weapons. The rest of you are with Toramin, Lindale and I. We're taking that second guard house!" He points his sword toward the other, gives everyone a couple seconds to get ready, and then starts running. They hadn't been up here long, but every second could be costing them another life on the battle field below. This time, when they reach the door, he cautions whoever is taking it down. "Don't charge in. Break it down and back up as quickly as possible. We don't want to fall into another ambush. Everyone else stay to either side of the door, clear of any fire or attacks they might have ready on the other side."
The moment the door is broken down, Gabriel would call inside as loud as he could, "DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER AND YOU WILL NOT BE KILLED!"
Once again, Barrowwheel attempts to pummel the aasimar into submission with his mind. This is quite tiresome though... he'll have to give in shortly.
Psotheos grunts and gives a half nod in satisfaction for having hit the aasimar. He spares a worried glance at Geoffrey and the others surrounding the anti-paladin. He feels like he’s pressing his luck if he fires into the melee again. He looks back at the blue substance and makes a decision. Once again, he slings his bow around a shoulder and hurries back to the bucket to try to get the cold liquid and throw it on the aasimar.
He lowers the bucket into the blue pool, thinking This is the opposite of lava. It’s aval. Psotheos mentally prepares for the cold but does his best not to let any of it splash onto him. Unfortunately the young noble is not that lucky.
The prisoners are compliant except for the dwarven engineer. He stands there stubbornly, refusing to be tied up but giving up his dagger and small hammer. "I 'ave no desire ta see me men slaughtered fer no reason, but I ain't gonna let ya use that catapult without killin' me. Difference between bein' a coward and bein' a traitor."
Bjorkus crushes the Aasimars leg underneath his blow, feeling the femur crack. However the light skinned man just laughs, lifting up the leg and slamming it back down on the ground with a sickening crack. Then he drops Geoffrey and throws his arms out, inviting you to hit him more.
Bjorkus stares in disbelief.
”What the hell are you?” the bull roars in demand. ”Some kind of undead?”
He laughs hysterically, a laugh of a madman with power. "You can't be undead if you can't die!"
"Bror, kan du overgi seg, eller disse mennene kan slå deg bevisstløs. Vi kommer til å ta din vegg og denne byen - Torag villig. Ditt valg er enten lydighet eller smerte. Begge har sin ære."
Bjorkus hesitates at the anti-paladin’s claim. He said he can’t die but it was obvious his body could still be damaged. How do you scare a man that can’t die…
The bull grabs the aasimar by the collar, ”You can’t die no matter what happens to you?”
He looks at you a moment. "Än en förbannelse på dig och din klan!" He runs to the catapult, reaching for the rope.
He cocks his head curiously. "Oh well I'm certain something can, but nothing you can throw at me peasant." Then he grabs Bjorkus's wrist, twisting it painfully and pushing him to his knees. "That's right, kneel before me!" As he begins acting more and more erratic, you notice the madness in his eyes growing.
Bjorkus groans in pain as the freakishly large aasimar proves to be as strong as he looks. Not one to be overpowered without a fight, the bull roars and pushes back in an attempt to get control of the anti-paladin. Even if the shattered leg didn’t hurt him, it had to be leave him off-balance. He casts a glance at the stream of lava behind him.
”Maybe I don’t have to throw anything at you”, he growls. ”What if I just throw you!”