Bjorkus casually reaches back and rests massive hand on the grip of the axe strapped to his back. His bicep bulges hugely as he flexes his weapon arm and he lightly paws the stonework floor with his hooves.
Around the corner, attempting to reduce the chance of a spasm of coughing, Psotheos breathes slowly. As he listens, it sounds like his companions are confronting a group of defenders. Lindale’s commanding voice. A reply — a patrol with a captain. Psotheos glances back down the tunnel, wondering how long they have.
Not understanding the minotaur's meaning, Dalton simply looks about while the others apparently share his curiosity of the area. That door probably leads to the city...
Hoping that his companions got the message, Bjorkus lowers his weapon arm. He studies the guards. They seemed to range in skill. Eager to test his strength and hoping to disable a dangerous weapon, the bull sets his sights on the big one with the halberd.
With a fearsome roar, he lunges for the big guard.
Toramin would like to take a swing at guard #4.
My stars! Everything was bloodshed and murder in these parts. Well, I guess it is a war after all. Watching the minotaur charge their opponents made Dalton feel ... safe though. They had the upper hand.
Dalton's complacency had him lose focus on his attempt to knock out their enemies. Hmmpf!
Lindale takes a step behind the foe that Bjorkus grapples and stabs forward with his new rapier.
While studying the guards, Psotheos readies an arrow. When he hears Bjorkus’ roar, he disregards the two wearing plate mail and decides to aim for the one holding the bow in his hand.
Toramin will focus guard #4.
Next Turn:
Following Turn:
Gabriel, so focused was he on the guards, missed the manataur's signal completely. It came as a complete surprise when everyone burst into action around him. Thankfully he already had his sworn drawn, but he was at least three seconds behind everyone else. He shifts around his companion Lindale and focuses on the leader of the group, not wanting either of his friends to be struck from the side while they were dealing with their opponent. With a strong swing he attempts to bring his new sword down as hard as he could against the smug leader of the group. With surprise, he finds that his new sword is not only lighter but cuts through the air far easier then his old sword, the one still hanging on his hip. The elven blade moves quickly and surely in his hands in a way he had never felt before with a weapon.
His tail twitched nervously as the situation descended into another battle, but this was war, and countless lives were counting on them to succeed. More then that, Gabriel had his theory about the water, which meant even more lives were in peril...
The large guard sees exactly What Bjorkus is about to do, but brings his halberd around clumsily and doesn't land a blow. Bjorkus grabs the man around the chest and tries to force him to the ground. The man holds his ground for a moment, the force of the struggle making veins stand out, but eventually he's forced down to his knees with a grunt. Toramin swings his hammer at the casual guard and manages to leave a very nasty bruise on the mans left arm. The guard grimaces, but then jumps strait up and pushes himself off the wall with his feet, diving past Toramin and next to Dalton. As he stands up he makes an uppercut with a shortsword he somehow drew when he leaped. The blade makes a neat slice across Dalton's face, starting at his cheek and slicing the cartilage in his nose in half. Arjax fires an arrow towards the enemy archer, but it just misses him, burying itself in the wall.
1-Shaken-0
2-Grappled-0
3-0
4-Left arm damaged-11
"Aaah!" The old man's wail sounded through the sewers as his face was gashed. Barely able to withstand the shock, he quivered in fear where he was.
Psotheos coughs as he grabs another arrow from his quiver. After moving to within 30 feet, he fires another arrow at the same man.
Bjorkus growls aggressively as he struggles against the big guard. Even so, this man was strong. He knew better than to count a man out before he was down. With an angry snort, the bull tightens his hold and begins squeezing his opponent in a bone-crushing bear hug.
The struggle between the large guard and Bjorkus stays tense and close. For a moment the guard manages to take control after elbowing him in the gut, but just as quickly Bjorkus swings his head sideways and clubs him with his horn. Toramin continues after the double fighting guard, but his swing goes wide. Arjax continues to assault the enemy archer, and this time he manages to land an arrow in the mans thigh, causing him to go white in the face and fall to a knee. However he remains conscious and returns fire, loosing an arrow that flies past Arjax's head. Lindale looks to assist Bjorkus in his struggle, making a magnificently timed attack and leaving the guards right arm bleeding. The head of the guards face goes red in fury at the sudden attack, and turns around with his Bardiche "How dare you attack his majesties guard!" And gives Lindale the business end of the weapon, leaving a nasty gash in his right leg. Gabriel comes to the drows rescue, making a beautiful crosscut that would behead any man not wearing armor, but the head guard stumbles back, wheezing for breath but still very much alive. Gabriel has a very short moment of victory at the powerful blow before the dextrous guard that hit Dalton comes behind him, hamstringing him. He feels his leg go week as the muscles separate.
1-Shaken-7
2-Grappled, right arm damaged-6
3-Neck damaged-0
4-Left arm damaged-11
Psotheos sees the vicious cut that Gabriel takes and knows he should have fired at that guard first when he had a small element of surprise. Now the shot is more difficult. Calmly, he takes his third arrow for this fight and fits it to the bowstring. Pull. He feels his heart beat, waits for the right moment, and releases the arrow.
Bjorkus grunts in surprise as his opponent muscles free only to reestablish his hold. The bull redoubles his efforts and slips an arm around the big man's shoulder to try for a stronger position.
Gabriel will turn around, trusting Lindale to cover his back against the plated warrior, and attempt to strike down the foe that hamstrung him. His leg burned with pain so in the moment he tried to bring his sword to bear he stumbled, very nearly falling to his knee. Grimacing, he did his best to give Toramin the chance to take the fellow with his hammer.
Dalton stumbles over towards Arjax, clearly wounded, though not fatally. In truth, being next to Arjax was merely happenstance; Dalton simply wanted away from the fray. Looking up through the pain, he saw the noble standing there, calm, notching his arrows. "I hope you're as lucky with those UGH ... shots as you were with your birth!"
Lindale turns on the one who struck him and strikes back. "Stop mucking around Bjorkus, rip his head off and get the next one."
Bjorkus pauses his intense physical conflict long enough glare at the drow.
"You wanna wrestle him?" he snorts in anger.
For a moment, the bull considers breaking away and reaching for his axe but that'd give the big guard time to use his own weapon. It was important to keep the party in one piece.
The large guard bucks and snorts, sending Bjorkus into the air and rolling over on top of him. Bjorkus keeps the momentum going, rolling back on top again, continuing the power struggle. Toramin finally brings the dextrous guard to the ground, landing a heavy blow on the mans chest and flooring him. Lindale attempts to bring down the head guard, but fails to get past the mans thick armor. The archers continue their fight on the side, both staying careful enough to avoid the bite of the others arrow. He turns, spitting at the drow "Shoulda stayed in your caves!" but Lindale easily sidesteps the slow swing. Gabriel smiles as he sees Toramin defeated the man that hamstrung him, then directs his force back at the head guard, also failing to get past his considerable armor.
[spoiler=Dice]
Missing once again, Psotheos stifles a groan. As an arrow whizzes by Psotheos he refocuses his attention on his counterpart archer. Planting his feet and straightening his posture, he fires his fourth arrow at the archer.
The bull snorts in growing excitement. The brute was putting up a fight alright. With a grunt of effort, Bjorkus snakes an arm around his opponent's neck and tries to tighten the choke.
Dalton leaned against the wall next to Arjax, his anger somewhat subsiding as he was more out of the fray - geographically and temporally. "Maybe ... maybe they'll surrender..." It was clear the man's shock had reached its zenith and was beginning to subside, but he was still a wreck.
Attacking the same man as before Lindale swings and misses.
Toramin will use his third roll on guard 3.
Gabriel growls in annoyance and hops back away from the heavily armored captain. Of the group, they needed him alive to answer questions, so instead Gabriel positions himself beside Bjorkus and the man he was grappling, with Lindale on the other side helping to keep the man positioned properly for a strike.
Bjorkus's leg cramps, allowing the man to begin rising up again. Just as quickly he reestablishes his hold, and with a deafening crash they hit the floor again. Toramin steps over his defeated foe and swings at the head guard giving the party so much trouble with his armor, but blunt weapons don't care about armor. With a single blow Toramin snaps the mans neck, rag dolling him against the wall. Arjax lets an arrow go wide, but instead of another arrow being returned at him the lad goes wide eyed at his falling companions and turns tail, running away and loosing an arrow at Lindale, who is surprised but protected by his armor.
Oh cmon. Somebody give up.
Seeing the lad turn and flee, Psotheos debates for a moment if this is a good opportunity to use one of his magic arrows. There is the darkness of the tunnel to contend with so he doesn’t want to waste one of his few magical resources. He draws a regular arrow and fires.
"Gabriel, Lindale, there is no way I can run that boy down. Could you go fetch him? Bjorkus, let him go. We might have an easier time of it if we use our weapons."
Toramin will ready an action to nail the big guard if Bjorkus lets him go, or if the big man escapes the grapple.
Bjorkus pauses in his struggle long enough to see that the battle was over. Most of the guards lay dead or dying and the archer was fleeing. With a derisive snort, the bull lets his opponent go and turns to face the one fleeing down the tunnel.
"Looks like we're gunna have to settle this some other time", the minotaur rumbles.
Separated from the big guard, Bjorkus takes off after the archer, "I'll get 'im."
Arjax watches another arrow fly past the boy, then Bjorkus releases his opponent and takes off after him. The man immediately tries to stand, only to meet Toramins hammer halfway up. He man grunts as his hip is hit hard, but he continues to defy the actions of strong men and finishes standing. He draws the longsword at his waist with surprising speed, bringing it around at waist level with a war cry. Completely unprepared for the sudden viciousness, Toramin takes the blow to the side of the neck, falling to a knee and wheezing for breath.
After sticking his fingers into the broken armor and ripping a piece of the armor off, Toramin forces his windpipe open with a blood chilling, rattling gasp of air. He coughs and tries to say something, nothing but a hoarse whisper coming out.
Psotheos hurries after the escaping archer. Drawing his arrow while running he pauses to fire before Bjorkus gets too close to their opponent to risk hitting the half-minotaur.