The minutes pass by as Angmar meticulously searches the burned and ruined building, and still, no gnolls show their faces.
After searching and turning up with nothing, Hatim then turns his attention back to the group.
It may be an option to help the poisoned cripple, rather than have a dead drow body lying about. Hatim lets out a small puff of air, Charging a snake? Great idea.
He then walks pass the group, finds a somewhat clear spot, pretty confident that its clear he sits down. He digs into his bag and pulls out an Alchemy crafting kit, and begins to set it up.
Where normally Kori would not have the patience to wait for Short-legs to take forever looking the whole place over, she is a little distracted by the whole process that New-guy is going through. After he collects the ingredients, and begins into the steps of it, she gets bored. "If this is going to take longer than a dwarf flipping every loose board to look under, you can finish it later. We can't stay here forever. When all of you're done wasting all our daylight, we need to move to the next building."
Still standing just outside the doorway, Apollo calls out as quietly as he can whilst still remaining audible, urging the party to leave.
You guys done? The sooner we scout this place, the better. If we stay in one place for too long we're bound to be spotted.
Listening to the complaints of the group about moving on Hatim finishes gathering up what was needed to harvest the poison, and begins to pack. He plans to work of the poison over the next weeks, due to its impressive ability to drain the health.
He then directs his question towards Kori,"Do you know how to handle poison? There may be some left over once I am done, you may have it if you don't harm yourself." He was slightly wary of offering his craft to her, because of the way she reacted to his bomb. If she ended up poisoning herself, would she blame him also? He then decided, "And, if you blame me for poisoning yourself; I might let off a premature detonation." He then remembered the simple way that she relaid things, "Another big boom."
Kori scoffs at New guy's question, "Please human, don't worry about me poisoning myself. I was actually taught how to safely handle poison long before your parents were born. It's a popular tool of my people." as an afterthought she adds, "You just keep your big booms off of me and we'll be fine."
Once everyone has gathered themselves back up, Kori makes her out the door toward their next destination. Irritation over the big snake bite has her mind preoccupied, causing her to take very little precaution in her movements as she heads toward the bridge to get to the buildings on the other side.
Hatim successfully scours the creatures' glands, scooping poison into two vials.
The party picks themselves up after the rough fight with the snake and meanders its way back out into the open air of Kelmerane. Crossing the bridge, the group sees something odd - Two gnolls leading a goat into the building that is their destination. The building, a mill, hides whatever is inside.
Time to get serious...
Putting his bow away, Apollo pulls out his giant Hammer, gripping it tightly with both hands before speaking quietly to the group.
Kori, how ya feeling? You wanna team up with me? You seek glory and I seek revenge, so let's work together. For now though, let's slow our pace. With a bit of luck we can trap these dogs in the building. They'd have nowhere to run, and we'd most likely avoid alerting the rest of the patrols.
Kori looks over at Lizard-friend with curiosity, "I'm fine, or else I wouldn't have kept going. We're already all teamed up together, and you're the one that talks of honor and glory. I have no use for either of them, don't you remember our first long talk?" She looks back over in the direction they saw the gnolls pass, before nodding "I agree for waiting a little, let them begin the slaughter of the goat, it will cover our approach." She slows her walk, and renews her grip on the blade. As she nears, she tries to see if there are any other doors into the building.
Vaguely, but I thought you craved battle, so when I say glory, I mean in the sense of proving yourself or your worth, or even just revelling in the deaths of all those who oppose you. A glorious battle as it were.
Still, I know we're already teamed up, but I meant you and I specifically. We're the heaviest hitters here. If the others are happy with it, we can run in, flanking any foe we discover, while the others wait by the door way, ready to give support or otherwise block what's hopefully the Gnoll's only exit.
Hatim silently hands Kori one of the vials of poison while shaking his head at Apollo. He then addresses Apollo coolly, "We are all a team, no need to break apart now. You will get your kills."
Hatim stores the other vial of poison wrapped in a cloth and places it into his back pack. He then tries to quiet his gear as he spots the threat up ahead.
But, I was strategising. We wouldn't be breaking apart. We'd be setting up an inescapable trap that would guarantee our presence remained undetected. It's a solid plan focused on one singular group of Gnoll's, in one singular building. I hate these things, but why run straight in when we can work as a team to trap and remove these dogs?
Apollo seems a little confused, unsure of why those around him are failing to grasp the concept of entrapment.
A general dislike for me? Sure I've branched off, exploring sections of the Monastery alone, but that hardly merits alienating me, or disregarding any solid plan I come up with. If it continues, I'll just go back to acting on my own accord. There's little point offering input when the input given is instantly thrown to one side.
The man looks at the ground and rubs the back of his head.
Kori looks at the vial confused, before she realizes it was the same vials she used to collect the snake spit. She just nods and puts it in her stuff. "New-guy is right, we just all go in the only door together, no reason to have the others wait to fight. We should all get to have fun in the kill, and if we leave people outside, they'll get seen." She picks up her pace suddenly, "We've waited long enough, I say we go now."
Depends where you leave them. Facing them along the wall away from the central area would keep them hidden, allowing them to peek around at the door for any enemies trying to escape, while two of us could wait either side of the door, catching any escapee's off guard before they can cause any harm, but if strategy isn't your thing, then fine, we'll go back to doing things the old fashioned way.
So much for trying to go unnoticed. With bombs and the clashing of all of our weapons we're bound to get noticed. At least if it were just me and Kori fighting the smaller groups, we'd likely kill with one hit, keeping sound to a minimum.
Marching off ahead slightly, maintaining the same walking pace as Kori, Apollo smirks as he waits outside the building door.
Ladies first.
I'll let her go in first, drawing attention to herself, as I run in afterwards smashing the hell out of anything with fur....minus the goat.
The bitter taste of the poison that he'd removed from Kori was rather unpalatable, but still, he found a use for it. He retrieved a sickle from his side and drooled the contents of it onto his weapon. Uncertain whether or not that would have any effect, he merely let the weapon rest on his side.
He was glad that he hadn't injured his mouth, otherwise he'd be losing his self at the moment. Figuring that he'd save the sickle for something larger in the future, at least. No sense in wasting it on the next gnoll they saw.
As they scouted ahead, Dmitri was merely silent, waiting for an opportunity in the future to revel in combat. It's funny, really. They looked at him so... distrustfully, prior. Yet here they are, giddy for combat like a suckling pig to it's mothers teet. A minor giggle removed it'self from his lips.
"Sar tu mafeh kurdista..."
And with that, he followed behind Apollo.
Dmitri's spittle doesn't contain enough of the poison to really effectively poison his weapon - he merely drools oddly colored spit onto the blade.
The group sidles up to the mill, and a horrid gnashing sound is heard from within. Apollo and Kori leap out to the sides of the mill's entrance to see two gnolls walking away from a bloodbath, no goat in tow. Behind them is a monstrously large wolf...bird...elk...thing. A wolf's head, topped by antlers, sits on a squat, four-legged body. Two of the legs end in hooves, the other in talons. Massive black wings sprout from the creature's back. The creature's shadow is most disturbing of all, and it issues forth from the creature in the shape of a human. The creature looks up at the pair jumps up, and roars, much to the surprise of the gnolls, who didn't even notice that there were people there until it roared.
So...
Peryton - 25
Kori - 22
Angmar - 21
Hatim - 18
Apollo - 8
Dmitri - 7
Gnolls -3
The peryton shrieks and rises thirty feet into the air, its powerful wings pressing air downward to push it up and away from its half-eaten meal. Its eyes glow with intelligent malice as it glares at Kori.
Forced to use it again huh? Guess the Gnoll curr's will have to wait. Time to take this flying waste of time down a notch or two.
Dropping his hammer, Apollo takes a step back, pulling out his bow and arrow once more.
This thing's probably more of a threat than the stupid Gnoll's. Ah well, I'll deal with it.
Stretching his bow string back, he lines up a shot on the flying beast, hoping to hit it first try this time.
Instead of rushing in and throwing explosives everywhere, Hatim, moves in through the doors while moving towards the front of the group he notices the flying thing ahead. At the sight of the thing he draws a vial. He is a little hesitant, but then swallows the mixture. His head twitches and he lets out an extremely loud growl that sounded like pain and anger. ”GRAAAAAAAA!”
Angmar grunts a singularly dwarfish grunt and taps himself in the chest with a fist, a divine aura enveloping him as he does so.
Kori sees the two gnolls, and then notices the weird bird thing give her the stinkeye. She points to the gnolls, and tells Lizard-friend "There's what you've been waiting for." She then moves to the other side of the grist wheel from them, and drops her blade at her feet, keeping it within easy reach. Turning to Pain-lover she says, "Wanna help?" before she begins to harass the flying thing "Oh, you are one ugly seagull. Come at me dirty birdy. Polly want a crack at me?" she gets in a wrestlers stance and beckons the creature forward with both hands.
The creature in front of him was no doubt associated with Lamashtu's favored. The thing was such a meddley of beasts it had to have been.
Out of the entire group, Dmitri was no doubt the most injured, and assuredly, the beast was going to dive for just that. Looking to Koritylija with a smile on his face; "Hah, Gladly!" he says as he runs over, getting near her.
He readies his scythe to interrupt the creatures possible charge, and shows signs of worry at a potential cleric in the future. "These beasts no doubt worship Lamashtu if such a creature is here kept well!" He was rather excited to meet a fellow member of the occult.
Peryton - 25
Kori - 22
Angmar - 21
Hatim - 18
Dashki - 17
Apollo - 8
Dmitri - 7
Gnolls -3
The peryton rising into the air and stinkeyeing Kori doesn't unnerve her in the least as the woman drops into a preparatory stance to actually catch the monstrosity on its inevitable swooping charge. Angmar's preparatory divine magic strengthens him for the combat to come, while Hatim's mutagenic substance transforms him into a combat beast, hard to hit and good with ranged weapons. Dashki grins at the gnolls' presence, and as his weapons are already drawn he leaps into action, moving to J7 and attacking the gnoll there. His scimitar draws blood, biting deeply into the creature's flesh and sending it reeling. Apollo's first arrow finds its mark this time, but the mundane arrow does not stick far into the creature's supernaturally tough flesh. Dmitri moves protectively towards Kori, inundating her against attacks. The gnolls' retribution is quick, and both of them move to Dashki to strike back. Unfortunately, they're either unnerved or distracted, and both of them fail to even force him to dodge.
Angmar moves into the fray and swings his axe at the closest Gnoll.
The peryton sweeps at Koritylija in a swooping charge, screeching in rage, toothy mouth open and hooves outstretched, it hits the ground just in front of her and lunges at her for a bite. As soon as it lands, however, Kori lunges at it in a grappler's pose, but it gets an opportunity to strike nontheless, one that it takes with zeal, tearing at her flesh before she locks it in her firm grasp.
Frustrated mutant Hatim pulls out a javelin moving forward.
His intent of striking the winged creature had now been completely ruined by that simple minded Kori. Hatim was disgusted by the fact that she had even touched it, but at least it would soon no longer be a problem. Hopefully, that brute has got a hold of it. He then turns to where Dashki stood, he too was in the way. Taking a deep breath in, Hatim, remembers to calm himself. Scowling, Hatim takes his Javelin begins to poison it.
Well, I may as well just take these dogs out with this thing, now I've dropped my damn hammer.
GNOLL DOGS! IT'S TIME TO PUT YOU DOWN!
Standing in the same spot, Apollo pulls an arrow from his quiver, draws it back and fires at the closest Gnoll.
Kori grimaces as the thing manages to jab her with its horns as she grabs at them to lock the thing up. Confident in herself after wresting control of the creature. "Rope it or kill it! Either I ride this thing or it dies. Both sound like fun."
With the creature more than restrained, Dmitri has more than enough time to get a look at it. Easing his worry for a moment right before it's teeth sink into Kory.
As he ponders it, his mind goes blank for a moment as more trickles of blood manage to seep from the wound. With retributive fervor, he hangs the scythe low as he dashes 5 feet forward, spinning on his heel to augment the swing. Relishing in the deep wound that that would entail would be more than welcome, if only he weren't so furious that it currently had it's teeth sunken into Kory.
Despite his rage, Dmitri was somewhat complacent, knowing they had healing on-hand. He was aware that such a beast, with it's deformities and strange construction was no doubt loved by Lamashtan priests, but, he was concerned that maybe he'd forgotten something in particular. Were they a holy creature?
These were all questions that he'd delve on deeper once it was dead, of course.
"My regards to Lamashtu, foul abomination!" he said, savoring the crimson on his blade.
Peryton - 25
Angmar - 21
Hatim - 18
Dashki - 17
Apollo - 8
Dmitri - 7
Gnolls -3
The peryton savagely tears at Koritylija's flesh as she locks it in a death-grip, just as Angmar slams his axe into a gnoll's chest, collapsing it. The crushed gnoll wheezes and falls to the ground, seeping blood and intestines. Hatim pours the snake's poison on his javelin, growling in frustration and bestial rage. Dashki sneers in contempt for the gnolls here, and swings his scimitar yet again at the gnoll, striking it yet again in a vital spot, sending its bleeding form falling to the ground. Retargeting for the death of both of the gnolls, Apollo launches another arrow that merely scratches the peryton before the arrow falls out of the wound it made. Dmitri's scythe, however, cuts deeply into the thing. Despite the wound, the creature growls and doesn't flinch.
Kori fights through the pain the thing has done to her thus far, if it gets any more good shots on her, she really wont have a hold on it any more. She decides to try and wrangle the antlers, the obvious handholds, and get behind it to lock up the wings. The only slightly intelligible thing she says is a grunt and a growl.
Angmar moves to help out Kori who seems a bit caught up with a big beast. The Dwarf strides forward his axe hefted sturdily in both hands and hacks at it's exposed torso.
So she brought it down huh. That's good and all, but if she gives it much longer it'll finish her. She looks pretty beaten up.
Putting his bow and arrow away, Apollo glances down out of the corner of his eye and towards his Earthbreaker.
Those dogs didn't even survive long enough for me to get to them. I'm sure I'll get my chance though. Anyway, it's time for this thing to die before it causes too much trouble. thinks the man, as he hefts his hammer up and off the ground, eyeing the grappled beast, readying himself for a charge with his most trustworthy weapon.
As Apollo charges the beast, he seems to move with incredible speed, more focused and determined than he was previously, as he sends a heavy uppercut into the creature's face, spinning around in a full circle from the momentum, in an attempt to control the swing of the heavy weapon he wields.
As the creature sinks its fangs yet again into the lovely Koritylija, he's impressed with the creature's constitution. It had certainly taken plenty of damage, between his scythe and Apollo, and as he looked around to see what was going on with the rest of them, the gnolls had already been felled. A pity, really, he would have preferred their screams of pain to this beast.
The mere fact this creature is still harming Koritylija is pure and utter blasphemy, and as the thing bites down even harder, Dmitri can hear the grunts of pain. In his silent fury, his eyes bleed.
Quickly, he slides his scythe across the ground, cutting the stone a tad, before roaring a yell at the beast as he brought down his blade with renewed, unholy fervor.
The feeling was strange. It was as if his attack had been entirely guided, and reinforced. Dark energies swiftly left his blade, and the trickle of blood merely left. As the weapon cleaved through whatever it had, he came back to his sense and watches as the blood trickled off of his weapon. It was truly a moment of bliss and retribution at such impudence.
Peryton - 25
Angmar - 21
Hatim - 18
Dashki - 17
Apollo - 8
Dmitri - 7
Gnolls -3
Kori, wrestling with the creature, manages to get a hand on its antlers and an arm around its neck, pushing its face into the ground and forcing it into a very awkward position. The creature screams in rage at its position, and pushes its arms and legs and neck every which way in an attempt to break free. Kori has a pretty good hold on it, though, and manages to keep its face squarely in the dirt. Taking advantage of the precarious position the creature is in, Angmar moves up to deliver a solid axe-blow with his greataxe. Hatim, growling with bestial power, throws a javelin, but fails to hit even the pinned peryton. Dashki has the same problem as he moves to strike the creature with his scimitar. Apparently his bloodlust doesn't extend to non-gnolls. The same cannot be said of Apollo as he leaps to grab his earthbreaker off of the ground, but he might be a little too late as Dmitri swings Tempest up, and then brings it down right into the peryton's neck, squirting blood everywhere. He pulls on the scythe and a ragged gash appears in the creature's neck, opening the way for blood and air. Kori stops having resistance to the grapple as the creature falls.
Kori gets up, a little disheveled and dirty from wrestling the creature on the mill floor. She wipes her hands off on the thing, and tries to get any of the blood of it off of her. She takes a deep breath, putting her hands on her hips, "Well, it would've been more fun to ride, but is was pretty tough. Other than the bites I took, I feel pretty content on how that went. That was a hell of a cut Pain-lover. That's how you put down a beast."
She steps over and picks up her new blade. Putting it away she gives the building a once over, looking for anything that stands out.
Angmar looks at Kori who is bleeding profusely .
"Well why ye has to get yourselves in trouble all the time girl?" he mutters before begining some Dwarven incantations to patch some of the torn flesh.
CLW
Well that was disappointing. I didn't get the finishing blow on anything....not even those Gnoll's. Unless we come across more flying things, I'm just gonna keep my Hammer in hand. The Gnoll's are mine. EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE OF THEM!
Apollo walks over to the door and looks around for any signs of activity once more.
As the rush left, Dmitri was quiet for a moment. Plenty of the blood from that kill had managed to splash on his face and blade. He didn't bother wiping it off. If anything, it just made him that much more intimidating. A good trait to have, really, in times like these.
To be safe, he wiped the blood off from his eyes with his forearm, not really worried about the condition of his coat. He retorted to Kori with; "The same to you. Matching strength with a monster like that was more than impressive..." his thoughts trailed to other things as he said it. As giddy as he was with the intervention of his deity, he was still mildly worried about an enemy cleric.
He reassessed himself. The coat he was wearing wasn't of any real importance, and had actually been something he'd acquired to hide the well-placed scars on his arms. If anything, it was merely getting in the way at this point.
After he'd got done wiping the blood from his eyes, he tied the waist of it and let it hang from his back, revealing the copious amount of recent damage he'd inflicted to himself. It was something, really. All of the cuts were still ripe, and some were maddeningly wide. They were, however, ritualistically symmetrical.
"Though I know that everyone here gets... worried... when I mention my knowledge of the abyss, I feel this is a bit important. The creature we killed was nothing short of an abomination, which leads me to believe that this group may have a cleric... They wouldn't keep something so vicious around otherwise."
Flicking his scythe rather hard, he tried to remove most of the blood from it, which was successful. He stretched out his left arm, as well as leaning back. To reveal his previous engagement openly would likely have no repercussions at this point. Come to think of it, Angmar was likely the first to realize his allegiance.
"Lead the way." he said, looking to Apollo.
Kori flexes and stretches after Angmar's healing, still marveled at how the gods healed her at the dwarf's coaxing. She shrugs, "I don't consider it trouble. I warned there might be snakes, and there was one. Then there was that flying deer bird, which I would rather have ridden, but it turned out to be more difficult than I thought."
She looks confused by Pain-lover's idea that a priest is responsible for the thing being here. If she had found and caught it, she would have tried to keep it as a pet. "I don't know about any cleric's, but I would have tried to keep the thing for a mount."
There is no more movement within the mill, the creatures within are dead and no patrol is nearby to see the party, but Kori does find two things of interest in the mud and dirt of the mill - remnants of the peryton's previous victims.
a +1 longsword and a ring with an engraving in it that depicts a man leaping over tall buildings in a single stride, coated in mud, are found in the mill.
Noticing Dmitri from the corner of his eye, Apollo, currently leaning against a post within the doorway gives Dmitri a quick salute and heads over to the next building.
Lead the way huh? Maybe they'll let me show my skills afterall. These stupid mutt's had better be prepared for me. I may even use their hides for things. Haven't decided yet, but hey, they like to enslave so I'm fine with enslaving their soul....if they have one. Fur for those in need of clothing...bones and teeth for decoration. Whatever. I just wanna kill the things.
Hatim sulks keeping to himself; mentally beating himself up for taking his emotions for fact. Should have waited. I should focus on support…
Noticing that the group was deciding on a direction to go, he wonders over to the door and follows Apollo. Hatim tried to put his perspective back into play; at least he wasn’t wounded in this fight.