now everyone should be able to read it. =D
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The group proceeds into the monastery as quietly as possible, the feelings they felt before getting stronger the farther they enter the building. Efreat takes a quick moment to attend to self defences with a wave of his hand, a few muttered words and dropping of something on the ground. A faint glow covers him before disappearing seconds later. Behir follows Daumari into the building trying to use Mah'ysa's light as best as he can. Hazreem waits till all of the group enters before following whispering something about glad there are no cacti about! Next in behind Behir is Mah'ysa whose hand is a glow, her mind trying to focus at the task at hand, ready to help however she might. Pae enters in behind Efreat with Haz the last person into the building. Daumari leads off to the north towards the ruined chapel, the going is slow, litter , debris, fallen pillars, parts of the ceiling and the darkness hamper the group. In front of the group steps lead down into the sunken chapel area. Off to the east and west two wings of the chapel can now be seen, the west wing looks to be once a shrine of some sort and ruined wooden alter, the east looks to be about in the same condition but was used for something else in its past life. Daumari with senses alert searches for danger in every corner. Cackling can be heard echoing around the chapel and behind you. No movement in front of you but something by the back wall behind you causes a commotion stirring up dust which can be seen by the narrow beams of sunlight intruding in on the shadows......
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Bahir jaw grimly set he advances behind Daumari and says in a low whisper, "Sounds like there are some in the chapel area. Let us clear the holy place first and Sarenrae will smile upon our further efforts." He takes a step toward the chapel only hesitating if Daumari offers an alternative.
Zoo:
Staring into the shadowy corners at the rear of the room, Hazreem tries to se what is causing the comotion . "I fear we may seeing the company of our ugly friends sooner than hoped for" he whispers to his closest companion. The sound of crackling static can be heard building around the druid and his hair starts to move as if disturbed by a stiff breeze. A tingle of elctricity runs down his arm and dances briefly across his scimitar.
Efreat spins around at the sounds. Holding forth his scimitar, fire begins to gather in his eyes. "Come forth! Meet the fires of the strong!"
Mah'ysa stays with the group as it continues further into the monastery, still the only light that which has gathered around her hands and that which filters in through the holes that mar the walls and ceiling of the temple. Still feeling very nervous about their situation, she whispers a short prayer and lays the hand not wrapped in flames on Bahir's shoulder. As she does so, he feels the holy power of their deity coming to his aid, as if guiding his action.
"We share the same thoughts in this matter, paladin"
Ever alert, the ranger's meteor hammer appears from beneath his robes and begins to swing in a slow, wide orbit. He makes his way further into the chapel.
Pae will advance slowly at the rear...whip ready to trip...
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The group moves further into the chapel area, Daumari heading for the center of the room. Everyone decends the short set of wide ceremonial steps which lead down into the cavernous chapel in which congregants would gather for sermons in happier times. The vibrant orange and red starburst of Sarenrae still stands behind a film of rusted rainwater and dirt along the north wall overlooking the collapsed altar. Between the stairs and the altar stand dozens of old marble benches, many overturned and even more broken into two or more pieces. A wide walkway bisects the pews, leading directly to the raised altar. Here and there a few clumps of the original red carpet along the thoroughfare hang on against rot and neglect.
Above the center of the chapel, dangling about ten feet from the floor, hangs a cluster of gnoll skulls in various stages of decay. Strung together like a ghoulish candelabra of twine and bone, the boulder-sized ornament hangs from the wooded rafters about 20 feet above the ground.
A few steps into the sunken chapel brings noises from all around you echoing off the walls. The hanging skulls begin to sway and jerk back and forth. Looking up you can see one of those little creatures standng on one of the rafters beams trying to pull up their holy work. Others appears cackling and yelping in some unknown language. One of them casts a rude gesture at you. Arrows begin to streak down upon the group.
The creatures are not prepared for a ready battle tested group thou as the group on the floor moves into action right quick....
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Bahir moves to the center of the room but not quite underneath the ghoulish candelabra. He begins weaving his body and scimitar in a dance that promises death to any who dare challenge him. The blade moves faster and faster until it becomes but a blurry sphere of steel.
Effects of Dazzling Display:
INIT=1d20+4=21, 1d20+4=20
Pae will move to the closest nasty, and attempt to trip it with my scorpion whip.
[ooc] and is very unlucky: 1d20=12+3, 1d20=2+3=5
Having been caught in the open by the sniping Pugwampi's, Hazreem raises his shield and moves to provide more cover for some of his less armoured friends, Like efreat or Pae. As he moves, he again launches a sparkling bolt of blue green electricity from his now static charged body.
"The little devils must breed like rabbits. Their females must have exceptionally poor vision to find such cretures palatable enough to breed with, what say you my firends."
"Cursed monsters."
Keeping his words to a minimum, Daumari stows his meteor hammer and draws forth his longbow and an arrow. Taking a quick bead on one of the creatures, he draws back the string and lets fly.
Efreat spins toward the creatures, casting as he turns.
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The battle begins as the creatures begin to fire shots down on your group and the lot of you react to their attacks. Efreat having a spell ready to go launches some fire he called forth but flies wide of the mark making a blast mark in the wall of the chapel. Daumari seeing these creature are out of range of his weapon quickly grabs up his bow. The creatures rain down a volley of small arrows at the group cackling all the while. So busy are they at having fun their arrows zig zag off in every direction except for the group of heroes standing below.
Pae moves up under what he thinks is the closes ugly creature and lashes out with his whip but he finds that all of these creatures are out of range of his whip as it cracks way below then. They laugh at his attempt, taunting him in their own language. Moving into the center of the room, Bahir swings his sword back and forth creating a display of mesmerizing effects causing the creatures to take notice and try to follow the blades movements. As they are busy watching the blades dance in a dazzling display, Efreat spins around and sends forth a cone of clashing colors out of his hand covering two of the little monsters causing one to fall from the rafters and hit the floor hard. The other one slumps to the beam he was standing on and appears to have fallen asleep or someting. Mah'ysa grabs up her symbol of her god and asks for help, she is granted and the the whole group suddenly feels a boost in courage that was not there a second ago. (+1 morale bonus on att rolls and savng throws against fear effects)
Another volley of arrows fly down at the group but have the same effect as before, arrows hit wall not even near where your party is standing making you want to giggle yourself just like the cackling little monsters. Muttering under his breath something about cursed monsters, Daumari draws back an arrow and lets fly at one of the creatures, his arrow flies off into darkness of the rafters missing his target. The chapel lights up suddenly as Hazreem brings forth a arc of lightning sendng it towards one of the small creatures, it misses but lights up the chapel's rafters showing the upper works have been papered over like a wasp's nest in an interwoven mish mash of soiled taperstries, tableclothes, altar runners and other bits of salvaged cloth creating a sort of hanging "tent" in the rafters above......
I will draw my rapier, dropping my hand crossbow as I move toward the gnoll skull hangings...I wil then attempt to cut it down, hopefully forcing the creatures out of the rafters.
1d20=16 and the second roll ....1d20=1
but instead Pae stumbles on his dropped hand crossbow, and fails to get anywhere near the rope.
Hazreem moved again, still looking to find more cover but protect his allies as well. Another sparking bolt launched from his hand into the rafters. This one was closer, but still probably hadn't hit anything.
When he saw the nest of paper and sheets, he became worreid that the whole roof section may catch fire if they hit it with a fire attack. Since they were here to try and capture teh place intact, that would not be a good thing.
He called Efreat as he moved, warning him of the danger. "Beware your fire spells don't hit that nest my friend. We could lose this entire temple if that were to happen."
Zoo
Next round I'm going to try and cast summon natures ally and bring an eagle into combat with one of the critters. In my home game we allow summoned critters full actions if they start in combat. However, I've played in games where the first round of a summon isn't allowed to be used for full attacks. Giving you the heads up now so you can think about how you run with this. I'm happy to take whatever your ruling is. Eagles get three attacks on a full attack, 2 claws at +3, 1 beak at -2, just so you know why I'm asking. Cheers
Efreat's eyes alight with fire, "Come to me!"
Remaining silent, the ranger strings another arrow and sends it into the rafters above.
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Deciding on a new course of action, Pae drops his weapon in favor of his rapier thinking to cut the creatures art work down but trips over his own dropped weapon stumbling forward trying to keep his balance and not run into his own friends. Behir also decides to take another route to get to these evil little creatures, tying a rope to one of the benches and taking the other end and heaving it up into the rafters. The rope somehow misses any obstacles and heads back to the chapel floor and Behir's waiting hands. Ignoring the possible threat at catching the chapel on fire Efreat throws another spell at the creatures. A ray of fire spits forth from his hand and smacks on of the creatures to the floor in a small ball of fire. The fire continues as it consumes the husk of the unlucky critter. Off to the side, Mal'ysa watches all of the action going on in the chapel and decides fire is not a good thing here in the old ruined chapel, the place could go up in seconds, it would be such a waste to further hurt this once fine building. Glancing around the room Mal'ysa notices something and chuckles to herself as she draws her crossbow and places a bolt into it getting ready to slay any creatures left. As she is doing this she comments quietly to Behir, You know it might be easier to use that ladder over there on the wall to get up into the rafters.(Back of the chapel by the last pew on the west wall.)
Seeing their brothers falling like rocks the rest of the little critters begin to move farther into the rafters. Remaining silent, Daumari pulls the string back on his bow and lets fly another arrow up into the rafters. It smashes into one knocking it off the rafter it was standing on dropping it to the floor below. Launching another bolt of electricity up at the still cackling monsters from his hand, Hazreem grimaces as it misses and strikes some of the old dried out cloths hanging up there. The bolt ends up striking the ceiling to leave a char mark on it and large holes through the cloths hanging. Luckly nothing catches on fire. A few more creature can be seen moving about the ceiling area.
Realising that his own energy bolts could cause a fire, Hazreem determines a new course of action. Calling on the great Gozreh for assistance, he begins to summon forth a great Eagle of the southern deserts. Let the talons and beak of such a mighty herald of nature rent these twisted wrecks of creatures in their high perch.
Maybe they would see the sense in fleeing, rather than facing such obvious danger.
He begins to cast.
Pae looks around to see if there are any of the little buggers in range to attack.
Slowly sliding sideways to get a bead on where one of the creatures disappeared, Daumari says without taking his eyes off his target, "Didn't get enough uncontrolled fire at The Sultan's Claw?" Seeing a slight movement up in the rafters is all it takes to doom his prey as the arrow whistles unerringly toward it's target.
Seeing the fire spreading, Efreat switches tactics. "Flear'zish!"
"Watch the fires guys, we're supposed to recapture this building, not burn it to the ground..."
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Looking around for some foes to dispatch Pae sees none he can reach at the moment but out of the corner of his eye he does spot Bahir testing the wood and iron ladder that leads off into the rafters. After a few seconds of checking the rickety ladder Bahir decides it will hold his weight and he should be able to climb up easily enough and begins to climb up heading off into the darkness. With a shout, "Flear'zish" Efreat sends forth a vivid cone of colors that springs from his hand. The cone shoots up into the rafters and blinds a few of the pugwampis creatures, one even falls to the floor by Pae still alive somehow but its paws cover its eyes as it rubs them and moans at the sametime. Seeing only one left and in any kind of fighting shape she figures others can deal with that one since its out of her range to do anything useful anyway, Mah'ysa heads over to the ladder to keep an eye on Bahir and watch his back. Daumari takes careful aim again and fires off a shot at the remaining pugwampis still running around as the others have either dropped to the floor or are barely hanging onto the rafter they are on but blinded by Efreat's spell. His aim is true and he finishes off another of the little monsters. Noise from many others now stirred up above like a hornet nest can be heard but out of site. Ducking down behind on of the pews or what used to be called one a time ago, Hazreem decides some help might be in order and calls for a friend to assist in their efforts.
Meanwhile, silently, Daumari aims at one of the ropes supporting the structure higher up in an attempt to also reveal the creatures.
Pae rushes forward to sneak attack the fallen 'wumpi
if it hits at 7, since it's blind and prone: Sneak attack (1d4+0+1d6=4)
Walking toward the tent, Efreat scowls as he begins casting. "Flear'zi......"
Hazreem finishes his incantation with a final flourish. The sound of tearing material is accompanied by the sudden appearence of one of the Great whistling Eagles of the southern deserts. The creature shrieks it's familar hunting call before tearing into the two blinded Pugwampi's lying on the rafter above.
Hazreem in the meantime moves across to support the base of the ladder while the others climb it. He keeps his eye out for any more enemies up above, willing to risk another electric burst if it means keeping the evil little creatures in cover while his companions make the climb.
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Rushing forward to dispatch the little critter, Pae easily sneaks up to the pugwumpis and finishes it off, silencing it forever. Almost at the top of the ladder Bahir extends his senses for danger, his head brushes the tattered cloths above him as he reaches the top. The darkness is hampering him from seeing any enemies or an opening into the chapel's upper works through the tent like structure which blocks his further assent. He can sorta feel the floor of a balcony or once was one. In the middle of the chapel floor Efreat stands ready with another spell in his hand but sees no futher threats but can hear more up above the tent structure. Seeing that Bahir is going up into the darkness and is starting to have problems already Mah'ysa decides to climb up the ladder quickly to give him the needed light to fight these evil little critters. More rays of daylight shoot into the chapel aiding the hired adventurers to see for those who need it but its still faint, the growing fire on the pugwampi home structure is helping see at least but not where Bahir is hanging onto the ladder. Cackling, curses, chatter and other weird noises drop down from the ceiling but no attacks for the moment. Seeing a way to help and hopefully expose the rafters above from the tent structure Daumari lets loose a bow shot at one of the old ropes holding the cloths aloft. His shot lodges into the one of the lower rafters unfortunately. A great shriek echos off the walls of the chapel as a giant bird suddenly appears and tears into one of the blinded pugwampis with its talons sending bits of it to fall to the ground below. Hazreem darts over to the ladder and grabs ahold to steady it for his fellows climbing up....
Seeing Bahir's intention to douse the fire, Hazreem tries to help. Summoning forth the powers of the humid winds of the rainy season, he brings forth a deluge of water right over the fire.
Efreat changes tactics. Picking up a rock, Efreat whispers "fizzar" and the rock glows with light.
"Bahir, let me and Hazreem take care of any fires, you are needed taking care of these little creatures!" Mah'ysa shouts over the din of combat as she too summons up water to douse the starting flame, negating her held fire and doing what she can to put out the fire before it causes damage to the Temple.
Pae will sheath his rapier, then draw and load his hand crossbow.
woo, fun turn.
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The battle seems to be heading into the rafters for the group with one route to get up to the pesky little pugwampi which leads Pae to sheath his rapier and begin to reload his small crossbow keeping an eye on the ceiling. Bahir makes the last of the climb onto the balcony which overlooks the chapel floor some twenty feet below. Two rows of tall backed choir chairs dominate the southern reach of the balcony, which hugs the chapel's concave walls. The rotting wooden booths are inscribed with religious symbols. The balcony falls away-collapsed for a span of perhaps fifteen feet-just on the other side of the choir area. To the east, rickety time worn wooden rafters stretch across the whole of the chapel. Two sections of these rafters have been engulfed in a sort of nest comprised of a patchwork of random bits of cloth which some of it is on fire. Bahir can see some pugwampis rushing about trying to put the flames out but are havng no luck. At the southwestern rafter you can see where the rope is tied off that supports the gnoll-skull chandelier. Some of the pugwampis scream at the site of Bahir and forget the fire completely and start running around in panic. Bahir moves in the direction of the fire to put it out but there are many pugwampis in between him and his distination. Changing tactics, Efreat grabs the nearest rock or chapel rubble and focuses his spell on it. The rock begins to glow light speeding off in every direction helping everyone see. At the top rung of the ladder Mah'ysa tells Bahir to worry about the pugwampis and she will take care of the fire, she shouts over the din of combat and summons up some water which spashes over some of the little guys and the fire putting it out quckly. A loud shout stops the paniced pugwampis, all look in the direction opposite of Bahir and Mah'ysa's position. Yelling is coming from behind more clothes, its hard to tell what is being said but it sounds like someone is ordering the little creatures as they turn and advance on Bahir and Mah'ysa, eight in all and two can be seen moving through the tent barrier looking to attack those still below. Daumari fires off another shot at the ropes above trying to bring down the tent structure but fails to do so again most likely due to these unlucky creatures they are fighting. Thinking about it he figures if he moves up the steps back into the Nave area, hopefully the unluck will not hamper his shots anymore. More water rains down on the pugwampis and the area where the fire once was making sure it is out from Hazreem's out stretched hand...
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The paladin relaxes into a defensive combat stance once the fire is put out. Noticing the unstable nature of the rafters he thinks better of leaving the area he is on but advances a step to the edge of the rafter the pugwumpis are using to reach him so they will be unable to surround him. Slashing out at the first one to reach him, he neatly cleaves through it mid arc.
Paellat welcomes the lack of light as the flames die away...he makes for the shadows and begins to sneak toward the one ordering the 'wumps. He doesn't notice the piece of fallen timber on the ground in front of him as he kicks it.
damn, hope the din of the wumpi chatter is enough to mask that noise he thinks to himself.
Sneak: 1d20=3+12=15, 1d20=13+12=25
Mah'ysa, seeing the swarm coming towards her and Bahir, lets out a small squeak as she quickly draws her crossbow and fires off a shot only to have it embed itself into some wood.