"Eeek! Scary," Rikkan screeches as the Shining head of the pole arm tears through the door!
Following his friends up the stairs, Zorek mutters, "The whole bloody place has gone mad!" He flinches at the sight of the head of a halberd coming through the door. Seeing Illonna try to take the madman's weapon away, Zoreck assists.
Lightning quick to respond, Illona grabs the halberd at the shaft just below the blade... and wrenches it free from the hands holding it on the far side of the door. A surprised voice calls out, "Hey!!!" before, at increasing volume, screaming garbled curses through the wrecked door. From the corridor, the shape of an armoured man... bulky and moving in jerky motions... can be seen wrestling with the door handle...
"Get ready to restrain him gentlemen." Illonna backs away still holding the haldberd. Her recollection of their battle earlier at the river made her hesitant to attempt holding back again. "He seems to be armored as well, so be careful"
Before heading upstairs, Astraea lingers a moment, examining their new host, Vessa. Though usually an optimist, she is no fool- and now that she is starting to grow accustomed to her circumstance, is settling back into her more typically untrusting manner.
- - - -
Astraea tries not to shriek as she sees the halberd come through the door. "Why can't things be simple for five minutes?" she laments as Illonna impressively snatches the weapon from the maddened Vorthad.
"Please, sir, calm down!" she shouts, though she doubts her words will have much effect. "We're- we're no friends of Blinky the Shouty Fish, either! Perhaps if we might sit down and have a quiet talk, we could, uh- loudly complain about him together!" She glances around at her fellow companions, hoping for some kind of hint as to whether or not this very randomly-chosen approach is worth pursuing.
Locke joins Astraea in shouting platitudes to the crazed man, "Vorthad! We're here to help this village. Please don't fight against us. Calm down and we will join forces against the terrible evils plaguing this town!" He knows his words will be unlikely to have any affect, but he hopes for the best.
Zoreck pulls his gun and points it at Vorthad. "You need to listen to my friends. Stand down."
As Locke and Astraea try to calm Vorthad down, the door is finally unlocked and swung open... and, standing just inside the doorway, a wild-haired man with ink-black eyes glares at the friends. As he adopts a stance to swing a flail at Illona, it becomes clear that diplomacy has failed...
...and that even Zoreck's threats will not calm the man down.
As the situation soon escalates into violence Drancis watches as the crazed man raises his weapon at Illonna.
He means to kill her! Yet we need him alive...he has answers for us!
Glancing around for something to hurl at the man sufficient enough to knock him out yet leave him alive, he spies a piece of the splintered door. Letting his mind take over, he steps back and lets the improvised missile fly, lessening the blow so as to leave him alive.
"Grab him! Hold him down, click!". Despite his encouragement, the small ratkin lets one of the biguns try to grab him first.
Zoreck mutters, "Don't say I didn't warn you..." He flips his pistol to hold it by its barrel and smacks Vorthad in the head with it.
Unable to reach the man, Locke picks up an inspiring chant to support his allies in restraining the man.
Whilst Locke breaks into song, Drancis attempts to subdue the man by throwingnrubble at him... Yet, in the tight confines of the corridor, he cannot manouevre his 'weapon' and he misses.
Vorthad, showing no more tactical awareness than a desire to smash the first thing in front of him, swings his flail at Illona...
Wild-eyed and nearly foaming at the mouth, the crazed man misses with his attack... But still does enough to duck Zoreck's pistol whip...
Round 1
Illonna is doing her best to keep the crazed man's attention so that her companions have a proper opportunity to restrain him. She stays aggressively in his face in the wake of the flail attack, though she refrains from attacking herself.
Drancis is no warrior but he is smart enough to realize the tight quarters made his unique abilities next to useless.
I could channel my power to force him back...but I have no way to lessen the force of the impact. Still he won't break off the attack now...perhaps I can use that against him.
Again the narrow doorway foils his clumsy thrust. How can anyone bloody fight in here?
Rikkan pulls and drinks his Shield extract. "Keep him distracted....I'm going in next round!"
Astraea realizes there is little she can do to help, and goes for a somewhat nonsensical approach...
As Astraea drenches the Crazy as he follows Illona out into the corridor, Drancis stabs forwards with his spear... But he is no warrior, his attempt misses the target and barely avoids tripping one of his friends...
Locke continues his inspiring chant, his words harboring a frustration only known to him. This enclosed space is certainly not the right place to be doing this.
Roaring with anger as Illona moves away from him, Vorthad swings at the paladin with his flail...but the close quarters doesn't suit his fighting style either.
Rikkan takes a deep breath and charges the crazed human. He tries to grapple the man, holding him up until the rest of the group joins in.
CMB
Drancis utters a few curses under his breath as the man shows no restraint. This has to stop! If he wants to engage in slaughter I can certainly oblige here!
With an effort he refrains from thrusting for the kill, instead electing to distract the crazed warrior allowing Zoreck to strike more easily at him.
Round 2
Seeing her companions struggling in the tight confines of the hall Illonna opts to draw her own weapon. Just as the day before she swings the flat of her blade with uncanny precision. Coincidentally her skin takes on a soft glow.
The flat of Illona’s blade smacks against Vorthad’s temple – the man, nearly dropping his flail in pain, staggers slightly… but neither Rikkan, ineffectually attempting to grapple someone much larger, nor Drancis can take advantage…
…worse still, Rikkan drops his guard at the wrong moment and Vorthad’s flail smashes into the small ratfolk…
Vorthad, now turning his attention towards Rikkan, starts shouting obscenities at his injured opponent… his face becoming increasingly red and froth appearing at the sides of his mouth.
Seeing Rikkan bashed with the madman's flail, Astraea realizes this fight is a little too serious to be trying silly things like splashing water on someone's head. She quickly reaches out to Rikkan and channels her healing energies into him.
Seeing his friends unsuccessfully trying to grapple or trip Vorthad, and feeling the urgency to do so as Rikkan gets battered, Locke falls upon the idea of using his Arcane abilities to trip the crazed man over…
Screaming, and with eyes bulging, Vorthad raises his flail above his head and brings its down hard… smashing floorboards where Rikkan had been standing less than a second before…
Rikkan attempts to distract the crazed human with his dagger and help Illonna get through his defenses.
Aid Another to Illonna's attack roll.
Taking in the melee for a moment, Zoreck seems surprised at the intensity at Vorthad's attacks-- and when the flail smashes into his friend's shoulder, he snaps. He drops his pistol and lunges at the crazy man, trying to wrest the flail out of the man's hand.
Drancis sees Zoreck lunge at the crazed man and nearly drops his spear in panic. I gotta help him here...!
Remembering his basic militia training, he waits to time his thrust to distract Vorthad before the other man can retaliate.
Round 3
Illonna attempts a second blow on the staggered man.
Zoreck rushes in, his hands grabbing for Vorthad's arms, but the deranged man - frenetic and drenched in sweat - is near impossible to grab. Worse still, he leaves himself open to an attack from Vorthad...
Illona, struggling in the tight confines of the corridor, can't land a blow on Vorthad...
Locke tries for a different spell, this time aiming to daze their opponent and to buy time, hoping Vorthad will soon trip and be captured. Locke flicks his fingers and mutters a focus word.
The shouting, babbling and craziness abruptly stop as Vorthad, entranced by Locke's distraction looks off into the middle distance - a beatific peacefulness washes over his visage for a few moments...
Rikkan again attempts to distract the crazed human and help Illonna get through his defenses.
Aid Another to Illonna's attack roll.
Zeeing Vorthad drop his defenses is all the invitation Zoreck needs. He lunges again at the man, trying to wrestle him to the ground.
This time, Zoreck makes no mistake - with Vorthad apparently distracted, it is not a difficult task to grab - and maintain a strong hold upon the lunatic...
Drancis cries out, "Good job Zoreck! Now just hold him there..." He then slams the butt end of the spear into Vorthad's skull.
Astraea decides that perhaps the best course of action is to follow Drancis' lead.
A less coordinated strike has seldom been seen upon the surface of Golarion, and Astraea immediately remembers that, despite her success against the burning skeletons earlier, she is no fighter.
With Zoreck holding him tight, it is not too challenging for Drancis to land a blow on Vorthad – even so, Drancis manages a devastatingly accurate blow around the temple and, with a firm ‘crack’ sound as the wooden shaft strikes bone, Vorthad collapses…
As the frenetic swinging and crashing of weapons subsides, a voice calls up the stairs, ”Is everything alright? Is Vorthad okay?”
"Click, okay is a strange word. He's alive though. We are too, thanks for asking," Rikkan calls out through gritted teeth. "Do we want to take him downstairs and try to talk to him? Keep all weapons away from him, though," he adds as he rubs the bump on his head.
Drancis shakes his head in reply. "No, let's just get him over to his bed. I don't want to drag him all up and down the stairs!" After the unconscious man is dragged over to the bed and laid down on it, he motions Illonna over. "Let's look him over and see if he has the same sickness as the others."
When Vorthad calms down, so does Zoreck. He seems a bit winded from the wrestling match.
The Numerian tribesman picks up Vorthad and lays him on the bed. "I'm tying him down... he might wake up itchin' to chop people up again." Zoreck then ties the man's wrists and ankles to the bedposts.
With Vorthad unconscious, and likely to remain so for a few hours, securing him to his bed is is still a sensible thing to do... Whilst the knots holding him in place are tightened, the friends become aware of the etchings in the floorboards of his room... and then the scribblings across the walls... and the ceiling. Strange looping lines surrounding tight spirals and concentric rings, they appear to make no sense...
Illona and Drancis' examination of Vorthad yield an entirely predictable answer - whatever was affecting the people on the far side of the river appears to have affected Vorthad as well... There is one interesting observation though, something that may not have been obvious on the crazies across the river - an angry-looking scar on Vorthad's forearm... It certainly isn't a wound that he sustained in the fight just now... and, if it is an old injury, it is not healing at all well...
Drancis looks up from his examination of Vorthad and stares around at the odd scribblings around the room. What do these symbols mean?
"I confess, I have not seen such a scar before in my life. I bet that is related to what is going on around here. We should talk with Vessa some more about this."
Zoreck scowls at the scar on Vorthad's arm.
"That's weird-looking...'
He thinks about the strange metallic ruins he used to explore back in Numeria, and wonders if anything he'd seen in one of those could have caused such a scar...
Rikkan calls out down the stairs. "Ma'am, could you, whrrr, come up here a second? Did you notice Vorthad injured before we arrived? He has a strange scar and we wondered if you could help identify it?"