Dizzy's spiritual mace continued to attack the dino that it had first hit.
Afraid that Jibril was going to be devoured by the three birds, she clumped forward into combat, hoping to draw some of their attention. She swung her mace at the dino that was already being clobbered by the goddess. Hopefully the two of them could bring him down.
"No ... No ... don't distract them! Drive them towards the cage! End this quickly.", Jibril tried to sway from side to side as best he could on his freshly wounded ankle as he backed into the cage.
Quinn couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Don't actually go into their enclosure, Jibril! There's no way to get out."
She readied another crossbow bolt but heeded Jibril's request not to distract them by shooting it.
"Right! Don't go in in there...Just help me herd them inside!" Rex shouted as he cracked the whip once more.
Vilhelm was torn between helping fight and maintaining the illusion. However, they were still staying within the illusion boundaries, so he focused on maintaining the spell.
Meanwhile, concern for Jibril came through in Rex's voice, and he lost the rhythm of the whip. The dinos immediately turned from the enclosure, and darted looks around the illusory small arena. The communicated rapidly, with their eery clicks and resonant whines and whistles. They then converged on Rex, perhaps wanting to remove the risk of the whip.
They surrounded them as best as they were able, as their instinct told them to do. Deinonychus were pack hunters, and they generally surrounded and flanked their prey. As one of them stalked up to the edge of the arena, its lashing tail failed to connect with the wall that it thought it saw. Immediately, it turned, examined the wall for a moment, then stepped through it.
A rapid series of calls followed, then all three dinos, now in flanking position, attacked as one. The brawler dodged and flailed with the whip, and managed to avoid two of the beasts. But the one inside the illusion connected, and the small, sharp teeth lacerated Rex's meaty bicep, nearly crippling the arm.
Rex
nope
Meanwhile, as the brawler fought off the dinos, the door nearest Quinn slide open. Rather than slide up to maximum height, it only opened by a foot or so. A faint chittering sound could be heard on the other side, growing louder.
The dial had spun down to zero just before the ant door opened, but nobody is currently watching the dial.
Rex sighed as the creatures gave up on following the whip. It wasn't working and the clock was ticking down. Giving up, he swung around to the creatures away from him
Jibril squinted, "Quinn! The door beside you is opening! Is there oil beside the door? Is it for feeding or burning?"
Jibril stepped forward and back into the arena. He closed his eyes and raised his arms to the sun, lowering them again in a big circle until his hands, now clenched in fists, met at the centre of his chest. As he did this he inhaled as deeply as he could. Then he started to make a series of clicking and hollow conk sounds.
Dizzy stepped forward to flank the dino, and sent her spiritual mace after it as well. After attacking, the spiritual mace popped out of existence.
Jibril's voice pushed Quinn into action. She ran towards the door that was opening and grabbed the clay pot that Dizzy had previously studied and then resealed. Not having time to figure out what to do with the oil, Quinn smashed the pot in front of the opening door and then uses her flint and steel to try to light it.
As she was trying to light the oil, she yelled, "If you want any choice as to when each door opens then someone better shove cards in the appropriate slots. Otherwise it's going to be chaos and we don't have a say in the matter!"
EDIT
Things were getting overwhelming. The strange bird-creatures took the first opportunity when Rex's iron control slipped to turn on them, and since killing the bear with their weapons had seemed to anger the emperor-effigy, Vilhelm doubted they'd get any closer to winning the challenge if they didn't play the game according to its apparent rules.
Still... there was something to be said for simply surviving the experience, and when one of the creatures walked too close and inside Vilhelm's reach, the Fae-forged glaive spun in his hands, the heavy blade weaving and darting, striking the closest bird-creature right in its left eye.
"If you still want to drive them in, I can move the illusion forward, make the arena shrink before their eyes," Vilhelm said as he retreated a half-step back from the creatures. "They might realize something's up, but if they saw no other option but to get back in their pen..."
Jibril's spell tried to wash over the animals, but there was too much violence already, and they shook the spell off.
The dinosaur that had been flanked by Rex and Dizzy fell to the ground, bleeding and bruised. A second dinosaur lashed out, its eyes stinging with the effect of the invoker's weapon. The final dinosaur was flanking Rex, and as its hatchmate fell, it lashed out with fury at the brawler. So terrible was its fury that its aim was compromised. Not a single blow landed on the strangely lucky human.
Meanwhile, alerted to the danger of the barely-open door near her, Quinn was fumbling in near-panic to stop the threat of the ants. She threw the bottle of oil in front of the door, and was relieved to see it shatter all over the dirt floor of the arena. It took a few precious seconds to get her flint in hand, and even more seconds to work on getting a spark to land on the oil.
It took just a little too long. A swarm of tiny, black ants came boiling out of the opened door. Heedless of the oil, they swarmed over it and started to climb and cling to the rogue, finding every gap in her clothes and biting viciously at her skin. The bites were shockingly painful, like hot-poker burns, feeling like the bite of a much larger insect. Even worse, they consumed the flesh they tore from her body with their tiny mouthparts, and Quinn could feel blood running down her legs as they climbed and bit.
"Be over in a sec Quinn!" Rex shouted, as he turned away from the fallen dinosaur and began pounding on the one behind him.
As he saw the swarm of ant come pouring out, he sighed. Well, that one's going to be hard to punch my way out of...
Dizzy saw the swarm of ants coming out, and immediately moved towards it. "Quinn! Vilhelm! Everybody back! I'll burn them!"
The cleric moved until she had a clear shot at the swarm of ants, and called upon the goddess to provide her with cleansing fire.
"Hoarfrost," Vilhelm muttered with feeling as he saw from the corner of one eye a swarm of ants rushing to engulf Quinn, and heard Dizzy's warning. Clearly, the time to lurk safely in hiding was well and truly past. The invoker relinquished his hold on his magic, allowing the illusion he had spun to quickly unravel like morning mist under sunrise, hoping the sudden shift of terrain would at least momentarily confuse the bird-creatures.
As he moved away from the cleric's line of fire, Vilhelm swatted the closer beast with the blade of his glaive, cutting a deep wound at the back of its leg, momentarily unbalancing it.
Quinn's face grimaced in pain as the tiny insects found her flesh and tore it to pieces. Not wanting to abandon her current task, Quinn steeled herself against the pain and continued to light her fire.
As soon as Dizzy's voice rang out to move out of the way, Quinn tumbled backwards and out of the way. She had just moved enough to see Dizzy's fireball whiz by her head.
Jibril charged the Dinosaur flanking Rex in a crazed attempt to push it back and into the bear trap.
[im pretty sure that didn’t work out the way I wanted[/ooc]
x50% = 7
Fireball damage =20x50% = 30
Jibril ran at the deinonychus, hoping to get it into the leg-hold trap. However, he didn't account for the multiple teeth, claws and talons facing him as he attempted the bullrush. Not only was he unable to move the animal, he received a slashed shoulder for his efforts.
As the deino was abusing Jibril, Rex turned and pummelled it with his fists. The delicate bones beneath the scales and feathers cracked under the assault.
Vilhelm moved away from the impending fireball, casually killing the nearest dinosaur on his way.
Aware of the incoming inferno, Quinn finally scraped a spark and the oil-soaked dirt floor burst into orange flame. Hundreds of the tiny biting ants sizzled and popped. The rogue tumbled back out of the way, taking another few hundred of the ants with her, who continued to bite deeper into her flesh, causing excruciating pain.
Then the cleric's fireball hit, exploding heat and fire directly into the middle of the swarm. Everybody in the arena felt the wash of heat from the spell, and several of the nearest straw dummies ignited. When the smoke cleared, thousands of the tiny ants had been turned to ash, and only a few hundred stragglers survived. However, being mindless and fearless, they reassembled in seconds and moved to the closest targets. A moment later, Rex, Jibril, and the final dinosaur were crawling with the tiny, biting insects.
The insect assault turned out to be too much for the battered deinonychus to bear, and it toppled to the ground. Alerted of the easy meal by the strange pheromonal telepathy of ants, the ones on Jibril and Rex bit their way back down the men's legs, and joined their swarm on the dead dinosaur. The reduced swarm started eating their way through the dinosaur with terrifying ferocity.
For a few moments there was relative silence. Quinn flailed and danced for a few seconds, swatting the last of the biting insects off of her, and then the only sounds were the burning dummies and the chittering ants.
Nope, all donuts dead, some ants alive wasting a dino.
Jibril, bleeding heavily from ... everywhere, limped-ran to the door with the image of the wings. He draws his hammer and the dagger he was given on the way. there are no teeth left in the skulls to placate these creatures ... perhaps it is a straight out fight
Trying to do two things at once he yells over his shoulder, ”Who is best with children? Perhaps the dolls are there to placate it?!”
Trying to do two things at once he yells over his shoulder, ”Who is best with children? Perhaps the dolls are there to placate it?!”
"I fear to think what kind of a child would be coming from that cage, but I can make an attempt," Vilhelm offered. "I wonder what I'm supposed to do with whatever appears, though... to convince it to go back to its cage peacefully with the doll in its arms?"
Quinn shook off the last of the biting, annoying ants. The hundreds of biting ants inside her armor did not improve her mood. She tried to wipe away whatever blood she could. "It doesn't matter what you plan for if no one puts a card in the machine before the timer reaches zero! If you want the child, someone needs to make that happen. Otherwise we're going to be dealing with randomness again."
"Quinn, Jibril, Rex! Come, let tha goddess heal ye a bit while we can breathe!" As soon as they were within range she called upon the goddess to send down her healing magic.
As soon as the bleeding had staunched a bit, the cleric ran back to the slots and fed the child card into the next slot.
Rex did an athletic looking roll out of the area with the ant. "On it!" He said as he ran for the card slot. "Not sure why you guys want to fight a child, but maybe we can trick it with the doll..." He dropped the child card into the next slot. "Anyone got anymore fire for those ants...they may get done snacking soon."
Jibril ran to receive Dizzy'z blessing "Thank you for this gift from the one you serve." and then to the cards and slots. "Then I will slot the last three cards - the Child, the Snake, and what I believe to be 'tooth fairies' a creature of the fey that steals teeth."
Team Orra, all in a burning hurry, managed to get the final three cards in the slots without getting in each other's way. One second later, the dial wound down to zero. It immediately spun back out to 9, and started counting down afresh.
All eyes were on the door with the crying child. It opened slowly, the door lifting up to its full height of seven feet. It revealed a small cell, containing a filthy straw mat, a bucket of water, and rat carcass. In the corner huddled a small bundle of rags and hair, softly weeping. As the door reached full height, a small head raised, revealing a filthy halfling child, perhaps five years old, with tear tracks down her cheeks. Blinking up at the armed and ready Orrans, the child asked in wavering common, "Are...are you gonna kill me too?"
Rex was surprised to see an actual child. He eyed her a bit suspiciously at first.
"Uh...No...We don't want to kill you..." Rex said as he picked up the doll and waved it around, "Want to come play with this pretty doll here?"
Rex winced. Yikes! That had sounded less creepy in my head! He looked to his companions for help, looking lost and afraid. Clearly charging at a bear was far more natural for him than interacting with a child. He tossed the doll to Jibril who was near him. He has a calming demeanor...or I guess we'll see...but it's his problem now... he thought, as he slowly stepped back from the situation.
Dizzy's heart broke when she saw the state of the child. Stowing her mace, she moved slowly to the child, hands out. Soothingly, she said, "Ach, poor wee lass. It's okay now. We're no going to hurt ye. We're the good guys. Are ye hurt? Are ye hungry?"
Quinn was not so easily swayed by the small child. She was extremely suspicious of anything housed as part of this challenge. Everything up until this point was intent on harming them so why should this be any different?
She made no move to attack but she didn't drop her weapon either. "You don't harm us and we don't harm you. Just play with your doll so that we can move on to the next door."
Vilhelm winced at Rex's tone, then joined the others in trying to reassure the child. "Just like the nice ladies said, we are definitely not here to hurt you. We are adventurers, and everyone knows adventurers only hurt monsters. And anyone as cute as you can't possibly be a nasty monster, right?"
Jibril looked up in the air assuming a spy eye was watching, "This creature has memories of dying?!", then he spat on the ground at the cruelty of the idea and the thought of being forced into a situation where they might need to continue the cycle.
The child allows Dizzy to approach her, though not without fear. The cleric discovers that she has scars of wounds that should have been fatal, including an ugly, jagged scar all the way around her neck, indicating a beheading. She also has burn scars over a good part of her body. However, she seems to be in good health now.
When it seems that nobody is going to immediately attack her, she comes out of her cell to take the doll, and hugs it tight. She catches sight of the ants consuming the dinosaur, which already has a few bones exposed, and she crows in delight. "Ha! Mean old dinosaur! I don't think they can bring you back this time!"
She surveys the rest of the arena, and smiles with each beast she finds dead. Seeing the "wings" door still closed, she shuddered. "It's good to do those last. They're nasty."
She glanced up at the emperor, who was still grinning, and she stuck her tongue out at him. "He's mean. You say you're nice, and maybe you are, but he'll make you hurt me." Another tear escaped, and she turned to run back to her cell. However, the door slid closed with a bang, preventing her from entering.
Jibril stood there dumbfounded.
Vilhelm and Dizzy seemed to be far more comfortable around the child, so Rex left that problem to them. Instead he focused on having the next two cards ready. "So...save the wings for last like the kid wants? Or do the snake thing last?" He asked Jibril.
Quinn scoffed, "I highly doubt that the Emperor can make us hurt you. You seem to know enough about how this challenge works so how would he make us want to kill you, a child? You say that he's mean. What does he want exactly? As long as you don't interfere with the other things we need to fight, you can leave with us."
Rex realized the other cards had been placed and desperately looked around the arena for some other way to be useful that didn't involve being good with children.
Dizzy felt a savage rage start burning inside her. "This...this is unconscionable. Ta cause a child harm, ta kill her, repeatedly, as part o' a game?! Tis monstrous!"
Turning to a spy eye, she shouted, "All ye watchin' this at home! I hope ye feel as outraged as I! Ye should be risin' up in the street, demanding a stop to this unholy practice!" Putting a hand over her heart, she said, "I, Dizhildi Boneheart, swear by the goddess, to find those responsible for this child's hurt, and answer it upon their bodies in kind!"
Taking the girl by the hand, she said, "I'll protect ye, no matter what. This I swear. I'm Dizzy. What's yer name, child?"
She moved with the child towards the bear enclosure, and dragged the bear trap after them. "My friends, do what ye must to end this. I'll support from here as I can, but I will nae let this child come to any harm." The look she gave them was just shy of a challenge.
"I highly doubt that the Emperor can make us hurt you..."
”Perhaps the door back to the game will not open unless all of the challenges are met. Well, the gate was blown from it’s hinges once ... unless this child is not what she seems it may needs be again.
Rex, let us prepare for the snakes. What do you think of this forked pole? Have you ever used one? It is similar to a footman’s mancatcher for unhorsing equites is it not? Or shall we bother with their props?” Jibril stowed his hammer and hauled out his gandasa, the hooked axe, to compliment his dagger.
Rex picked up the forked pole and tested it's weight. He brought it slamming down hard into the ground fork first. He gave Jibril a shrug. "Maybe we're supposed to bring it down on the snake in such a way that it is trapped." He looks around and think of the other items. "It does seem like the items are all design to incapacitate or distract the creatures."
The child beamed up at Dizzy with a trusting smile. "My name is Avie."
To Quinn, she said, "What does he want?" She stuck her tongue out at the emperor again. "He wants blood. He loves it. He thinks its funny. He's so very mean. I hate him!"
Before she could say much more, the snake door slid open. As it opened, it revealed a large woven basket, standing at least waist high. The bottom of the basket was attached to the bottom of the door by a cord. As the door slid upwards, the cord pulled the bottom of the basket up, which resulted in it hanging upside down.
A handful of long snakes tumbled out of the basket, tongues flicking. Each was easily as long as Jibril was tall, and as thick as Rex's biceps. They were banded gold and black, each band very thick. Several of the snakes coiled over each other, making it difficult to get a good count of them. One slithered forward into the doorway and reared up, its ribs spreading to make a flattened hood, and its flat black eyes gazed upon them with no expression at all.