"Deceiver!!" Barundar roars, moving backwards away from the woman before invoking a word of command. A momentary pulsing glow from his armor, and the dwarf suddenly grows in size, an order of magnitude larger than he was moments ago, and his weapon with him!
Round 3: Brambleblight
Seeing Morti as the new threat, the plant focuses its attacks on him, slashing him with its thorns!
Round 3: Ewigga
The hag smiles her crooked teeth at the dwarf, "You naive fools were so easy to deceive. Really? I was the trapped crone in the otherworldly realm...woe is me! Hahaha...."
The hag moves 15' north and casts magic causing a rain of dirt, gravel, and small pebbles to fill the area, striking Bar, Falric, Morti, and the Brambleblight!
"Get her, Barundar!" Meanwhile, Falric slashes at the big tree again.
Suddenly oozing blood from dozens of thorn wounds, Morti refocuses the divine energy flowing through him into knitting those wounds back together, while aiming another blow at the plant:
Morti's magical warhammer splinters the plant's bark into dozens of pieces, as it dies a painful death! Only the hag remains.
Moving through the rubble and pebbles conjured up by Ewigga, Barundar extends his grip on his dorn dergar's chain, swinging the weapon over his head once to get some momentum into it before he swings the even-heavier ball at the hag!
Round 4: Ewigga
The hag cackles, as she dodges the dwarf's powerful blow from 15' away. "Now you see me...." Casting defensively, she conjures druidic magic and the area is suddenly covered in misty vapor, which obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. The area is silent except for the sounds of your own breathing. Barundar and the party have no idea where the hag is!
Party is up!
"useful idiots we are, eh?" Morti sighs. Backing up a little from the fog to avoid being surprised, he looks around for any sign of the treasure that might be Ewigga's goal, hoping to cut her off, and cast a quick healing spell.
Growling low in his throat, Barundar moves as quickly as he is able in the direction that he last knew the others were, trying to get out of the fog.
Falric looks at Morti and shrugs, "As long as it's not poisonous, right?" He grips his scimitar and moves 30'west into the mist, looking and listening for the hag. If he finds her, he swings:
Surprisingly, Falric bumps right into the hag. He slashes her and his blade finds the marks, as he slashes her across the face!
Round 5: Ewigga
The hag grips her face in pain. "You little bastard...I will rip you apart!" She swings twice and surprisingly draws blood twice, as Morti and Bar hear the sounds of combat inside the mist. "Not as unhittable as you once throught, huh, runt?"
Falric gasps in pain, as the hag cuts him deeply with her claw. However, he was always a gambler. He spins his scimitar in hand, looks at the hag, and smiles, "Let's dance, crone!" He commences dancing in his area, weaving and bobbing, relying on his luck and skill before he strikes!
Hoping to lure Ewigga out of the fog cloud where she can be effectively engaged, Morti rushes towards the ancient chest, and will give it a look over for any magical wards.
"Keep 'er busy in there, Fal!" he shouts, "Ah'll have the druidic relics secure in jus' a moment!
Hoping to lure Ewigga out of the fog cloud where she can be effectively engaged, Morti rushes towards the ancient chest, and will give it a look over for any magical wards.
"Keep 'er busy in there, Fal!" he shouts, "Ah'll have the druidic relics secure in jus' a moment!
Round 6: Ewigga
The wounded hag tries to finish the halfling off, but Falric is too quick and she misses twice, as she screams in frustration, "Leave my treasure alone, I will be there to deal with you after I kill your runt!"
"Runt?! Who you calling runt, hag-face! La, la, la, you can't hit me!"
"Keep her busy, Falric!" Barundar says, getting into the now-extended range of his dorn dergar, taking another swing at the hag.
Round 7: Ewigga
Seeing the power behind Bar's swing, Ewigga considers him the main threat over the halfling and moves in 5' toward him and strikes him with her claw across the throat, nearly severing his jugular, as Bar screams before he collapses to the ground gurgling on his own blood, as a pool begins to form under him! Ewigga smiles her crooked teeth at Falric before swiping at him with her remaining claw, which misses by a mile.
...threat
...threat confirmed
Falric screams ”Noooo! Morti, Bar is dying, get in here!!!”
The happy go lucky halfling turns his anger on the hag!
Hearing Bar's cry and Falric's shout, Morti gives up on guarding the loot for the time being, rushing to assist his companions.
Morti double moves into the mist, following the sounds of Falric's dancing and Ewigga's screams of pain and heavy breathing, as the halfling continues to inflict maximum damage on her. When he reaches the scene, he sees Barundar lying in a pool of his own blood, eyes glazed, slowly slipping away. He can make out Ewigga's form in the mist but does not spot the halfling, although he can hear he is close, further west.
Round 8: Ewigga
With a passionate fury, Ewigga bares her claws down on the halfling! Unfortunately, to no avail, as her attacks clip nothing but air....
Morti kneels over Barundar, saying a quick prayer to knit the dwarf's wounds back together --
On the last round of his battle dance and with anger rising in him, Falric looks at the hag, "You picked the wrong runt to mess with!" He spins to build momentum and drives his scimitar into the hag's throat!
The halfling's spinning strike decapitates the hag (), as her head lands on the floor with a thud! Soon thereafter, the mist disappears leaving you inside the room with the treasure chest. After some investigation (taking 20), you notice the chest is locked but not trapped. With Falric's thieving skills, he eventually opens the chest only to find it empty. However, his keen eyesight notices a false bottom in the chest and that the chest has literally been built into the side of the mound. Beneath the false bottom, a warped wooden ladder descends inside the hill to a 10-foot-square chamber containing the Council of Thorns’ hidden armory!
Morti hears Falric's snarl in the murk, and the snik of his blade, and looks up from ministering to Barundar in time to see the hag's head roll out of the fog.
"...looks like ye have things under control then, Fal?" he calls.
"Ooyy...bloody lot'a good this armor done mae..." the dwarf says as he sits up, now his normal size again. "Thanks Falric!" he calls aloud to his companion as he gets to his feet.
Falric's anger soothes as the hag's head hits the floor and he realizes Barundar is still alive. "Guys, please try and chip in and next time and help a little. That old crone was tough! Glad she's dead!" The halfling shoots the party a knowing smile.
[dice=spellcraft]1d20+6
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We go back to Elisen, since we left her along and blind in that room.
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You return to the initial room with the plaques where you met Ewigga. Unfortunately, a grisly sight catches your attention when you don't immediately spot Elisen. In the corner of the room, hidden from view, you see her body (i.e. corpse). Her throat has been ripped out by sharp claw marks on her neck and it looks to Morti's skilled eyes that she bled to death from that wound. You immediately remember that Ewigga was the last one to climb down the rope, thereby perhaps giving her enough time to coup-de-grace your poor blind and helpless companion. You find among her belongings that her spellbook has been burned, but her other treasures are intact.
"By the gods...mae tha' evil witch rot in tha deepest circle a' hell...pairr Eli. At least she ha' bain avenged, but tha' is cold comfert..." Barundar laments, kneeling to the ground beside his fallen companion.
Morti stands quietly in his anger for a while. "Too trustin' by 'alf, we were. ...I was. Kols forgive me, fer bein' so eager ta take on th' giants ah failed ta protect me own companions."
Falric falls in anguish when he see Eli's corpse. He kneels before her and apologizes for not protecting her better. He whispers "We avenged you, dear. Rest in peace." A few tears falls, but he composes himself, stands, and advises the dwarves, "She's getting a proper burial."
You store all the treasures away (dwarves are great as mule packs) and fully rested and healed, you head back outside of the portal to bury Elisen. It's hard sweaty work but your fellow companion is worth the effort. After a couple of hours, with prayers and sentiments expressed or not, you finish the deed. As you rest wiping your brow from the hard work, Morti and Falric spot a female slender blonde haired Elf, walking through the marsh toward you. She sports a brown and green explorer's outfit with long tall leather boots completing the look, a cloak wrapped around to protect her from the elements and mosquitoes. She is attractive and as she approaches, her mouth drops and in a shriek of joy exclaims something in elven, which none of you understand. She smiles, "Morti, is that you? What a small world, indeed!" When she realizes the scene that you just buried someone, her disposition turns sad and a little sheepish.
Barundar blinks curiously at the scene before him as Morti is promptly assailed by an attractive she-elf and begins speaking in a tongue that is unfamiliar to him, but which he assumes is Elvish. "Uh...say, Morti? Who's yer friend, thair?"
”Morti Hearthstone, as I live and breathe...is that you? What are you doing in these parts?”.
Once she realizes there was a grim proceeding going on, she clapped her hands over her mouth. ”I’m so sorry. I didn’t notice what was happening. I’m so sorry for you all.”
Morti similarly blinks in confusion for a second before recognition flickers --
"Er, yes...Emily...Amilie...Amiya..." he struggles for a moment with her non-sequitor appearance.
His eyes narrow, and Amyia can readily tell that the mud-streaked dwarf standing before her is in a much darker and angrier mood than the cheerful soul she'd traveled with previously.
"Aye, ye caught us at a bad time, ye migh' say. An' how is it ye caught us at all? Last ah saw, ye were headin' off ta Numeria, an' now ye show up in th' middle o' this cursed swamp -- why?"
Ewigga's recent deception still painfully fresh, the inquisitor bores into the new arrival with his gaze, awaiting her answer.
”You might remember that I’m a bit of a wanderer,” she says, pointing at the butterfly symbol on her rucksack. ”Guess that come from following a god of travel eh? Looking for the next bit of magic here there and everywhere. I got wind of some supposed ancient magic in these parts, so I figured I would have a stroll this way. Blundered Into an ambush not too awful far away...overestimated my skills, I guess and ive been looking around ever since. How about yourself and your mates?”
Morti rubs his eyes wearily with one dirty fist, sighing heavily. "Aye, of course. Forgive mah rudeness, please - we've jus' lost a companion to deception an' betrayal. An' that in the course of our mission, itself bein' investigatin' a murder and an attack on Trunau. Don' know if ye've e'er been through th' place, but it got hit pretty hard by th' orcs, 'bout a week ago."
"Lads, miss...Amyia 'ere an' I caravaned together a while back. Wanderer, like she said, an' we were headed the same direction."