The grimples snicker at Cyanne before one opens its mouth, retching a couple of times before vomiting a solid mass of half-digested rats, rotten lettuce, and of course, foul-smelling stomach juices in Erinat's direction. Another follows suit, launching its own bile toward the girl.
For her part, the girl retches, vomiting over her already-filthy clothes, and then stumbles away from the monsters.
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Kazimir's reckless charge catches the singer square in the midriff, driving the air from her lungs in a surprised "Wooooof!", and more importantly, driving her off her feet. His charge ends with her pressed against the wall of a nearby building and with Kazimir between her and the gremlin.
The monster takes a chance and steps into Kazimir's reach (provoking if he's got a weapon) before whipping his saw-blade at the paladin's shin. It bounces off the tattered and beaten-up hides, unable to find purchase.
A second gremlin pops its head up from above where the awning was, chittering and hefting a rock!
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Feeling the now familiar magic come over him, Daen had a decision to make. Let Luthor's Hex go to waste, or risk taking glory from Kaz who had one of the little buggers right at his feet. In the end, the safety of the woman was important, more so than His friends' pride. So he moved over next to the Erastilian and maneuvered his weapon to attack. A familiar blue glow came over the sword as he stabbed down on the minuscule menace. "Your days of sabotage are at an end."
"Ugh. You're worse than mites! But you'll not get the girl. I won't allow it."
Cyanne shoots, hoping to rid the world of one of these disgusting and evil fey.
Laliytsa shoots an arrow at the grimple she just missed...
....and misses again. She scowls.
Cyanne's arrow punches into her target's chest, eliciting a gibbering wail of pain mixed with confusion. A moment later, Laliytsa fires, but then she misses again. Then, the grimples surge forward.
The green one rushes off, following Erinat and scooping a rock into its hands before whipping it at the girl's head. the stone thumps into it, drawing a cry of pain, and a moment later Erinat herself stumbles forward, only to fall back through the hole in the floor.
The other two grimples, for their part, rush forward to fill the space around Cyanne, gnashing against her calves and thighs with sharp, half-rotten teeth. Their breath adds another layer of smell to the already pungent aroma of the Burnt Onion's basement, but other than that, their attacks fail to accomplish much.
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Daen's blow drives a deep gash into the creature, which screams piteously and then dies. Kazimir climbs up a nearby ladder, pursuing the remaining Vexgit gremlin, but trips slightly on the last rung, throwing off his aim. Luthor, for his part, channels his hex again, applying it to Kazimir this time. The vexgit drops the rock, managing to get it about halfway between him and Kazimir, but no further.
Frustrated at his own clumsiness, Kazimir widens his stance to steady himself before swinging at the gremlin again. "Do you see any more down there?" he calls back over his shoulder.
Although she has misgivings about the girl, Laliytsa's not going to let that Grimple run after her.
Cyanne drops the bow, and fights with her rapier on the sparkly Grimples that are attempting to bite her. She goes after the injured green one again, trying to kill it.
"Erinat, hang on! We'll finish these idiots off!"
Daen does a quick scan of the area in response to Kaz's request. I don't see any others down here." He glanced over to the prone girl that Kaz just saved. "I apologize for the indignity, we'll have the monsters dead soon enough." Upon reflection, he wondered if the nicely dressed woman was anyone he recognized from his time in the courts.
The sounds of retching fill the air, both from the girl down in the pit and from the grimple, which begins vomiting up what seems to be the entire contents of its stomach as first Lali's arrow and then Cyanne's rapier punch into it. It falls to the ground, choking and coughing up more bile, as its friends surge forward.
One of the remaining grimples (blue) leaps into the air, dirty fly wings erupting from its back as it buzzes and thuds against the cellar's ceiling. The other rushes Laliytsa's leg, attempting to find an artery, or even some skin, with its hideous jaws.
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The vexgit's eyes cross as Kazimir's battleaxe chops into its head, but while a small cut appears, most of its skull simply bounces back to its original placement. It bares its teeth and growls, then takes a swing at Kazimir's kneecap with a tiny hammer. The blow connects, feeling less like a proper hammer and more like the kind a healer would use to test responsiveness, but it nonetheless makes Kazimir flinch.
Incensed, Cyanne chases down the blue Grimple, lunging at him with her rapier. "Oh no you don't! I promised Erinat I'd keep her safe!"
Laliytsa fires at the would be ankle biter. "Sassafrassin varmin"
Following Daens lead, Luthor paused to eye their surroundings, vary of any more enemies creeping up on them, on him.
Feeling covetous of his power, not wishing to waste it on a solitary enemy, he then drew his dagger, making his way behind the creature to hopefully distract it for Kazimir. In the doing, he even managed to stab clumsily at it.
Thought it seemed that Kaz had things well in hand, in order to keep from talking to the woman that Kaz knocked over, the half elf found a ladder and climbed up it to help out with the fight. He took a stab at the creature, hoping to dislodge it's head, or perhaps something more important than that.
More surprised than pained by the impact of the creature's weapon, Kaz strikes again, swinging his axe down as if splitting firewood rather than fighting a gremlin.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Laliytsa and Cyanne are both able to finish off their respective grimples without more fuss than the first, though by now the bar's basement reeks a reek none of you have smelled before. It's not quite enough to make you puke, but it's close.
From the hole Erinat once again fell into comes a scream and then the sounds of perhaps a half-dozen creatures giggling and laughing uproariously. Then, the scream is cut off suddenly, and the tunnel beyond the hole goes silent.
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Daen's sword delivers a deep cut that begins to heal over before stopping, looking less like the lethal blow it was meant to be and more like a flesh wound. Nonetheless, the vexgit panics as Luthor approaches him, dropping his guard for Kazimir to deliver the final blow.
The woman picks herself up slowly from where she collapsed when Kazimir spun around to pursue the second vexgit. She dusts herself off, wincing as her bloody elbow catches against the threads of her torn and threadbare linen dress, and then looks sadly at the corpse of the nearest Vexgit, sighing.
"Thanks, but they'll get me anyways. They've been chasing me about town since the tavern burned down." She glances down to look at the broken remains of her small fiddle, shrugs, and tries to look stoic. "I'm Emmala. Who are you?"
"Youre welcome..." Luthor blurted out, belatedly realizing his part in the rescue probably didnt warrant him being the one to say so. "...Is..what Im sure my companions here would say. We are happy to help."
He moved to her side, his hand dutifully beginning to glow as he reached for her wounded elbow.
"Get you anyway?" He said, looking a bit surprised. "You mean to tell me there have been more attacks?" He looked at Kazimir and Daen. "Seems this rescue isnt over, right?"
He followed her gaze to her fiddle. "We will likely be in your company a while longer, I might be able to mend that with a spell tomorrow. Cant make any promises though, that particular spell cannot handle everything."
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Cyanne dry heaves for a second, but it's nothing worse than what she smelled when one of the Rose's customers got out of hand.
The screams and giggles from the pit are troubling though. "Perli, please tell me you're here. We could use another set of eyes to tell us what's going on."
Before she charges down there, she roars...
Alright, that's enough!
You really want to see what happens when bards play rough?
I'm tired of the puke, tired of the games
I'm ready to go down, kick ass, take names
My name is Cyanne, my girl Lali and I smell like drunks
But dammit, we'll can take you all on, you stupid fey punks
You don't get to play
You don't get to keep the girl
By Shelyn I'll make you all pay
So, what you gonna do again -- hurl?
The smell is disgusting, but Lali's smelled worse; she's led an unfortunate life. She rushes over to the pit and peers down, trying to pick out any shapes in the darkness.
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Daen came down from the ladder, seeing that Kaz performed admirably. It seems death hadn't slowed him down all that much. Hopefully he'll be at top performance within the week so they could finish the job. Speaking of finishing the job, the matter of the rescued bardess was still outstanding.
"We are adventurers, Daen, Luthor and Kazimir." The half elf pointed out whom he was talking about as he spoke. "We have experience in rooting out evil fey. On top of that, we're interested in the burning of the Burnt Onion. If that's what you are talking about, it's in our own interest to get to the bottom of it. Please tell us what you know."
Despite Laliytsa's best efforts, the tunnel below the hole in the floor curves off to the west long before any figures can be seen. However, she does spot a trail, mostly of bits of vomit and blood, that leads off down the passageway.
Perli dutifully pops into view, frowning at the hole in the ground. "Ya wants me to go in there? Ya sure?" A moment later, he flits through the air almost lazily, returning after a moment or two. "I ent seen tha little biggins. Plenty of meanie-feys, though. Lot of really ugly ones. Some with blue-black cloaks, one in rags, and one with needly teeths." He pauses. "I wouldn't go down there."
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Emmala grins, shooting a beaming smile toward Kazimir, before growing a bit more sober. "Thank you again, really. And yes, the burning of the Burnt Onion is what I'm talking about. I for one believe the guards when they say it was reckless young nobles from Lebeda and Medvyed, given how they treated me like some sort of eye candy, but these ugly chittering creatures didn't start bothering me until just an hour after the fire started."
She pauses, gathers up her things, and starts walking. "Well, with all this commotion, there won't be so much as a few coppers to be earned here. I'll show you where I'm living; maybe you can figure out what's plaguing me."
Before long, Emmala's walking leads her into the tangled, dilapidated Tumbledown. There, rough-looking men stare at the party from the shadows as it makes its way toward a small two-room hovel. As she creaks open the door, she raises her voice. "Harry! Harry, I've got company!"
As she steps through the door, she trips over an unfortunately-open drawer, crashing to the floor and cursing before picking herself up. She glances quickly into the back room before coming out, her face a mask of worry. "Where did he go? Listen, I took in this boy after the fire. He said he was one of the room-maid's sons, and I told him he could stay until we found his mum. You have to help me find him!"
Cyanne casts message on Perli and Laliytsa.
"Are you sure you didn't see Erinat down there?" Cyanne kneels down at the hole. "The problem, Perli, is that neither Lali nor I can look the other way when there's a kid in danger. Especially when we encouraged her to come out where the monsters could find her."
She looks at Perli. "How many meanie fey are there? Is there some way to lure some of them out? What do Gremlins desire?"
Then she looks at Lali. "Ready to help me kick these gremlins on their asses?"
Daen scratches his chin, finding his lone whisker while he thinks. If the evil fey were behind the attacks, it might stave off some of the bad blood in the area and finish their obligation to the clerics. This would definitely be for the best in that sense. The fact they were stumbling into the exact thing they needed was a little too convenient, though. He felt that it could definitely be a trap, but he couldn't know for sure. The half elf knew first hand that the fey could be tricky, and these were no mites with comical ineptitude. "The more information you can give us concerning this issue, the better off we'll be in our investigation."
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As the small party makes its way through the rougher parts of town, Kaz finds himself even more uncomfortable than in the city bustle. Rather than home, where people were generally friendly and amicable, or the busy square, where they simply ignored you, this felt different. He can feel beady eyes on his back as he follows Emmala, his skin crawling inside his well-worn armour.
"A child's gone missing?" he asks, snapping back as Emmala's tone becomes more distressed. "Well, he can't have gone far, surely?" Even as the words are out of his mouth, he realizes how foolish he sounds; annoyed with himself, he begins picking around the small home.
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"When were you home last?" Luthor asked, as he started searching the small home with the others, prompted by Kazimirs statement. "How old is he? What sort of boy is he? We need to know more about him to peice together where to look."
"Dunno. Her tracks just stop. Biiiiiig cavern ahead, though. I bet ya bigginses could even be comfy!" Perli pauses, momentarily abashed. "I didn' look further, and I didn' look too hard. Tha meanie feys were in there, and they could prooooooobably see me."
Satisfied that his answer's good enough, the wee dragon flits over to an unbroken barrel, fiddles magically with the stopper, and then begins bathing in the semi-cool ale as it flows freely down onto the stone floor.
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Kazimir's search doesn't turn up much of anything, aside from a few ratty-looking outfits sized for a boy of perhaps eight and a pair of nearly-worn-through leather shoes. Emmala, for her part, grimaces. "He's about four feet tall, lanky, with a shock of dark black hair. An angry young man, but I knew the room-maids a little, and I was hoping she'd turn up soon. I hadn't been home in six hours..."
As the investigation commences, the door flies open and, a second later, a silver-lined badge, a snarling bear depicted in the middle of it, flies clumsily through the doorframe and bounces off the wall near Luthor's head. A moment later, a confused-looking man bursts in, screaming at the top of his lungs. "They told me you said our names were stupid!" Two other men stand a few yards back, looking even more confused as two children scurry away. One of them matches Emmala's description, and also happens to be barefoot.
The half elf noted the trap he was expecting, although he had to admit he didn't think anyone could be this much of an idiot, much less two of them. He drew his sword, but opted for a defensive posture. "You must be mistaken. If I wanted to fight you, I'd do so in the Square of blades. I don't know you or those kids, and I'm a terrible liar, so you can trust me on that."
Lali stows her bow away, grabs the rope and starts climbing down....
"Stealth won't be needed, they know we're coming." Bardic performance already initiated, Cyanne climbs down after Lali. She sends her dancing lights down the tunnel ahead of them so that Lali can see. "Thanks, Perli."
Lali slips, but is able to catch herself on the rope just before the ground. For her part, Cyanne handles the rope a bit better, and then scans the curving tunnel. The slimey vomit and blood is easy enough to follow, until, without warning, it stops. A bit further on, though, the tunnel, which seems to have been dug recently, judging from the loose dirt walls, expands into a wide cavern. Standing near the far side slouches a hideous, halfling-sized hunchback. its eyes take turns blinking, first one, then the next, then the last, as it stares at Laliytsa and Cyanne from beneath its blue cloak.
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The man's face turns a ghostly shade of white as he realizes that he's just attacked a heavily-armed group of people in an unpatrolled neighborhood, and a moment later his friends attempt to grab him, all while shouting platitudes. However, every time they seem about to get a hold of him, their hands slip. For his part, the belligerent drunkard draws a club and takes a swing at one of his would-be attackers, missing at the last moment as the handle flies from his hands, though the leather thong wrapped around his wrist prevents him from losing it entirely.
"That's him! Harry! Harry, come back!" Right into the center of the brawl runs Emmala, heedless of grabbing hands and swinging clubs. In response, the boy sticks out its tongue and makes a vulgar gesture before continuing to flee, giggling wildly with his friend.
Not having any idea what sort of gremlin or mite this is, Cyanne loads up another cold iron arrow, but the sight of those three eyes creeps her out so much that her hand shakes and she misses, arrow clattering against the cavern wall.
"Gremlin, I'm in no mood for games. Where's the girl? Where are your puking companions?"
The strange, hooded fey's eyes flash as Cyanne's arrow bounces off the cavern's dirt-and-stone walls, and then it screeches. It begins barreling toward Cyanne, its clawed fingertips flashing the same color as its eyes, and then brushes idly against her hip. The shock ripples through her body, causing pain across the board.
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Let's see if I get this right.
Okay, so, you can always choose to proceed cautiously, which will gain you one square of space. However, if you wish to move more quickly in order to gain two squares of space, you can try to succeed at one of two checks.
Meanwhile, the chase targets will continue running at one square per turn If you catch up, you can try to stop them or slow them down, or you can try a spell or ranged attack, but any attacks are treated as not moving that turn.
I think that's the basics. If someone has more than 30 ft. of movement per turn, they get +2 to their check. If they have less than 30 ft. of movement, they get -2. That' about it.
The brawl in the doorway of Emmala's house continues, blocking the way as she begins screaming. "Harry! Harry, why don't you come back? Your mother will be so happy to see you when we find her!"
The lightning courses through Cyanne's body. It frizzes her hair, and writes line of pain over every nerve ending. Without thinking, she strikes back at the Gremlin, as hard as she can muster.
"Watch out! This one packs a charge!"
[b]"Nuglub eh? It'll try an' trip ya."[b]Laliysta squeezes past Cyanne into the cavern proper. She strafes around the creature so it’s ‘pinned’ between her and Cyanne; all the better for her to hack away at it with her axe.
Daen attempts to move through the crowd but he knows that this particular challenge doesn't work for his skillset. A few beads of sweat start to dampen his forehead as the people press in on him from all sides. He did his best not to think about it and just get by. The brawl was relatively ineffectual, although an elbow managed to clip his ear.
After a few moments of bobbing ineffectually from side to side, trying to find an opening to duck through the brawl, Kazimir clears his throat and calls in the loud, clear voice accustomed to shouting to his brothers across the fields. "Cease this madness!" he cries, holding up his empty hands to show non-hostility. "We need to get through!"
The nuglub grits its teeth as Cyanne's rapier punches into its chest, leaving a much tinier wound than expected, then opens its jaws to take a chomp of the blue-haired aasimar.
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Daen, Luthor (botted), and Emmala struggle through the melee in the doorway, trying to move through without disturbing the fighters or drawing their ire. Meanwhile, Kazimir stands tall, like a giant, and gives a mighty shout, and lo and behold, everybody moves!
Meanwhile, the two orphans sprint forward, one ducking into an alleyway and scurrying up over a fence while the other slashes at a horse's leg with her knife, upsetting a wagon in the way. As it twists, it breaks free of its harness and begins running wildly!
Daen moves through the crowd, slightly behind Kaz as they move toward the fleeing youths. As he picked up speed, leaving the crowd behind, the swordsman deftly cleared the wagon as it rolled in front of where he was using his sword to actually gain a bit of altitude and making sure he landed properly, leaving a small nick in the wood.
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Blood running down her shoulder, still hurting from the electrical attack, Cyanne grimly presses on, knowing that the damn fey is somehow resisting the full brunt of her attacks.
You took a bite of me
Think I'm pretty sweet?
I still got fight in me
Gremlin, I'm not your meat
So you throw lightning
Got my synapses firin'
You're not so frightening
Next time... I'll bring cold iron!
"Lali, hit him hard!"
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Thinking quickly, Kazimir rushes to get in front of the horse, hands held out in front of him. "Woah, there! Easy, boy. Easy," he coos, slowly reaching out to stroke the creature's nose to calm it.
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Pausing to look in the direction of Kazimir and his piercing voice over the noise, Luthor gaped a bit at the sheer power of it. He was usually so soft spoken, this was a first. He then looked at Rikka. "Well, time to give this new thing a try, huh?" He said to her, looking at the fleeing orphans as they started to slip away. "Lets see, how was it?" Rikka made a few gestures in reply, sensing where his memory was failing him. "Right, left over right, then cup the hands." He said, nodding and smiling at her.
Stopping in the middle of the street, he started gesturing, muttering in some strange otherworldly language that seemed to flow from his lips automatically rather than through any conscious effort.
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Blasted fae and their resistance to plain steel. Fights like this make Lali wish she had magical aptitude; it would be so much easier if she could set this thing on fire.
Cyanne's rapier bends comically as the gremlin laughs, a dark, high-pitched laugh that seems to echo in the tiny room. Then, Lali's axe smashes into its head, knocking it a good blow that rattles its skull and leaves a good-sized wound.
The nuglub whirls, gnashing its teeth against the more-threatening ranger's thigh without finding purchase. It says something most likely vulgar in a strange tongue and then brandishes its claws menacingly.
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The boy makes a break up a waterspout and begins running across a tenement's roof before Luthor's glitter falls around him just as he begins running across a splintery beam connecting two buildings. He slips and falls onto the road below, form rapidly shifting to that of a tiny, bug-eyed creature with thumbless hands that paw helplessly at its eyes. However, the fall doesn't seem to faze it
The girl urchin, meanwhile, sprints into a dead end and then, as the party closes in on her, begins wriggling stubbornly through a narrow gap in the building's wall. The gap looks as if it's possible to fit through it, or you could take your chances scaling a building.
For Kazimir's part, the horse calms down under the influence of his level-headed demeanor, quickly stopping its bucking and charging and coming to the paladin at his call.
"What the...?!?" Luthor sputtered, going from horrified wincing at the unintended fall to curious surprise at the boys sudden change in appearance. "Do we chase the girl or apprehend the, uhm, boy?" He asked the others, his voice raising in pitch as he spoke the last word, questioning what he was looking at. A squeak from Rikka made him look her in the eye. His face turned to worry, his forehead furrowing and a frown on his lips. "I dont know, it could be dangerous..." He was silent a moment, then sighed and nodded. "Ok, good idea, go." He said, and Rikka quickly scurried down onto the street, then made for the hole the girl had slipped through. "But if you get too far away to sense me you come right back you hear?!" He called after her, a hurried squeak drifting back through the hole.
The half elf was not particularly surprised at the true appearance of the buggy creature. It made sense the boy wasn't human, that it brought misfortune upon Emmala. It was an evil fey, and now he didn't feel bad about even taking the option to kill it. Of course, he wanted to pump it for information first.
"Emmala, I do believe we found the source of your misfortune. Hold on a minute and we'll take care of it."