Brek rolls his eyes at the two of the strongest in the party.
"Have you all forgotten we're supposed to be silent here? Bringing down every single gnoll in the area towards us will only alert our quarry. Really! Does it truly matter who kills who and what first? If any of us lose out lives because of each of your foolish grandstanding. I'll be the first to tell you 'I told you so' if I'm still alive that is." throwing to the two in question.
Really. That Apollo doesn't seem to get it at times. Nice fellow but totally loses his head over gnolls. One could call him obsessed with them. Sheesh. Thoughts running over his head even as he shifts himself slightly further away. If that attracted attention, he's going to need some space to warn, plan and perhaps act on it.
"In case you've forgotten......we're facing likely hundreds of gnolls?"
"All this bravado is impressive and all, but Brek is right. There are likely over a hundred Gnolls." Aeris says, a hint of sarcasm in his voice around the word impressive. "I think we should head out so that we may get there sometime soon." he says and then turns toward the rope still hanging in midair. With a few words in Auran and a snap of his fingers the rope falls to the ground. He begins coiling it up and putting it in the handy haversack.
It matters. said Apollo, keeping his objective firmly at the front of his mind.
Whether there's one, one hundred or a thousand Gnoll's awaiting our arrival, it matters not. They're all going down and it'll be mostly by my hands.
There was no hesitation in the man's words. He was simply worryingly cold about the whole situation at this point, confident to a fault many would suggest.....except he wasn't the same man the party knew a year ago. Something was different about him. Something had changed, even if it wasn't yet apparent.
"Has your time with that beast if yours dulled your mind?" Je'grik asks, tail flicking sharply. "We need a better plan than just running in to die! The air walker who just joined us yesterday could go in unseen and give an idea of what we're up against!"
Kori turns around and glares at the group of them, "Shush, all of you, you waste your time and alert of where we are. You don't speak Apollo's thoughts the right way. I understand him, a bit."
She turns to Apollo, "Look, I know revenge. I spoke with Dmitri of it, he doesn't seem to get it, trust me. I was sold to slavery by a ruling house of my people when my house fell. I vowed revenge, and it is where I went this last year. I was robbed of the chance, as they fell to others over the time I was gone. Now I will never know it, because I had no part in it."
Back to the others, she clarifies, "It will eat at me always, that I couldn't take part in bringing them down, and never will. It is what I use to fuel my anger when I need to use it."
Back to Apollo she adds, "What does it matter if you feel you did it alone? What if you fail alone, then you will not have your revenge, and you will be like the undead that never reached their goals. Why can't you know that even if it isn't alone, you were a part of those that saw revenge. So what if we all do it together, you will be there to share in it, and enjoy seeing him fall. Sometimes you have to use tools to get your revenge, we are those tools, just like you all were the tools I used to earn my freedom. You wouldn't fight him without your hammer, so why do you want to fight him without the rest of the weapons you have, us, your allies? The key to revenge is using everything you have at hand to see it made real."
Dmitri had managed to completely ignore Apollo until his hammer hit the ground and echoed about the area. The sound makes him stop where he stands, and with that, he turns, with a wide smile on his face. Shaking his head. "I have no intention to steal anything, Apollo." he says with a bit of a laugh.
Placing his hand over his eye, he continues. "I'm not gonna rob you of your destiny, but let's take a moment to think about this..." he says as he walks towards him. He stands above the ranger at the final point of his short journey, standing at a high 6'6. Looking down, his smile fades completely and morphs into a face of apathy. "I don't care about your destiny. I don't care about any rights you have. I don't care about how bad you want to kill him."
He finishes that sentence and lets it sink in for a moment. "I understand revenge. I grew up in a church filled to the brim with people that did nothing more than sate their desires of the flesh in the company of a succubus that happened to be my godmother. I lived my entire childhood amongst demons and fiends, and dark individuals. Drug addicts, prostitutes, slavers, awful people in their own right..." he says as he begins to walk around Apollo.
"I was a sacred child to a church that worshiped a fallen angel that venerated hedonism in all it's forms. On my coming of age ceremony I tasted wine that drove men mad, and laid with women you couldn't even imagine. I reveled in the zeal of evil. I am not a good person, Apollo." he says as he leans the scythe towards his chest.
"I am one of the most awful people you will ever meet, and I am here. On this rock. At the foothills of a gnoll chieftain not because I care about your destiny, and not because I wish to see a tyrant dead at my feet. I am merely here to ensure the people, the women, my flock and my wife, can rest easy.- His eye begins to surge with a dark fury. - So. Apollo... When this beast no doubt cleaves into my chest and body, and... SPILLS!... MY BLOOD! THE LAST THOUGHT ON MY MIND ISN'T GOING TO BE ABOUT YOU AND YOUR THRICE DAMNED DESTINY." he says, forcing himself to whisper, and resisting the temptation to speak in abyssal.
With that, he turns on his heel, giving everything he's got into throwing his cape in the rangers face. "Speak to me no more on this journey. Quell that match stick rage. We will sort our feelings out after this gnoll is dead, and not before. Do not jeapordize us with another tantrum." he says as he walks off, scythe on his shoulder.
Kori shakes her head and scrunches her nose at Dmitri. "You don't know revenge. You may have seen it in others, but you never lived it. You just said you grew up a sacred child with a devil godmother. You were spoiled however devils spoil their young. Who has taken your life from you, that you swore with your soul to make them pay?" She waves him away, "You saw bad people, maybe did bad things, but you ain't owed vengeance on someone for most of your life."
To them both she demands, "You waste time arguing with each other, and make too much noise. We will all fight and kill these dog-men. We will do it together, and no matter who is the last one to hit this chieftan, Apollo will have his revenge because we are all the one's responsible for the big dog-man's defeat. Now let's go do this, and no more arguing, we are sneaking." With that she resumes the lead and her sneaking posture as she moves again toward their goal.
I guess you're still a little miffed about that slight disagreement we had a year ago. said Apollo to Dmitri, raising his hand to cast aside the cape rudely flicked into his face.
You don't know revenge Dmitri. Your knowledge of you God is undeniable from an outside perspective, but revenge is something you have no first hand knowledge of. Kori and I both know what it's like to have everything stripped from us and sure I may be good in your eyes, but nobody's perfect. Wanting to kill an entire race or tribe is hardly justifiable even if I believe it's to bring balance to what was taken from me. An eye for an eye, although satisfying, would leave the world completely and utterly blind.
You see my rage as a tantrum. I'm a very different man from when we first met Dmitri and I actually hold compassion for others. I attended your wedding, crept in at the back even because I was generally happy for you. I just didn't realise the full extent of your hatred or how much you despised being around me. For that, I'm sorry. Not sorry for existing, but sorry you've made yourself feel that way.
As Kori stepped in to take the argument into her own hands, Apollo stepped back and listened to what she had to say, taking in what the Drow woman had said before and during this heated debate.
Kori. said the man, as he looked into her eyes with a confident, yet canny gaze.
I don't know how this is going to go down, but what I do know is that Ghartok, The Carrion King, is incredibly strong and ruthless to a fault. All that we've faced so far has been nothing compared to the wrath that beast unleashes.
Looking to everyone, including Dmitri, he then says; Ghartok is arrogant. His arrogance may be his undoing, but he's not stupid. His strength is more than enough to back up his dirt-ridden, smug expression, so don't underestimate him.
Glancing back to Kori and turning his head ever so slightly to face her, Apollo continued once more; My confrontation with him is a matter of strength and honour. The love I hold for my family and friends who perished by he and the hand of his pups is what spurs me on, fuelling my rage against him, so to me it's incredibly important that I be the one to end his life. Being someone who didn't get to exact their revenge on the ones who mistreated you, I know you can understand me now, but then again, the memory of my people rest on my shoulders alone and if I die, the memories of all of those lives die with me.
Looking up at his hammer for several moments, Apollo tilted his head back towards the House of the Beast, his face changing to express that of sorrow as his eyebrows dip and a concerned frown spreads across his face.
Standing there for thirty seconds or so, he then puts away his hammer and pulls out his Longbow.
Kori. I don't know if we've ever gotten on or if we simply haven't had enough time to have a friendly chat, but.....you didn't get the chance to take out those who bullied and oppressed you, so I welcome you to seek revenge with me against The Carrion King.
The man then smiles as he finishes his statement.
Lead the way, girl. It's useless me being up front right now because Nom's hardly the stealthiest of us all. I'll have you covered from behind for now, don't you worry.
Quieting his voice a little, he then mumbled; I need to stay on top form for this battle and if I fall to injury now, it'd all be for nothing.
Shrugging to Aeris.
"See? Told you that it'll be interesting."
Aeris takes a quick look around before readying to follow the group.
Perception 1d20+3
Brek being their scout moves slightly ahead though he keeps to cover as much as possible. Keeping an eye out for danger from both ground and above ground. No telling what creatures may have heard Apollo's outburst.
While he doesn't spend much time looking around as the outburst he'd just done has muddled his thoughts, his approach is surprisingly calm and cool.
Highest Perception score - 22, Aeris
Stealth Scores:
Dmitri - 17
Aeris - 17
Apollo - 8
Nom - 13
Brek - 19
Kori - 12
Average: 13 (Perception DC 13 to notice the group's approach)
[/ooc]Distance 150ft.[/ooc]
[/ooc]Distance 100ft.[/ooc]
Apollo manages to locate some gnoll tracks - easily enough, actually. The hard-packed ground in this area holds tracks much better than sand does, and the gnoll tracks are plentiful. As each one in the group surmised, the tracks do lead, for the most part, towards the House of the Beast, though many of the tracks lead elsewhere, likely to other and secondary lairs of the gnolls.
So, the group begins to travel forward, keeping whatever brush or tree or rock or hillside between themselves and the House as they are able. The mile-long trip goes fairly quickly - even moving slowly to deal with being quiet and unseen, it takes a mere twenty minutes to reach very close to the House of the Beast. The House's stone walls rise high, too high to climb, though they are broken in places. Directly in front of the group, however, is what appears to be a gatehouse.
Along the east wall stands a thick gatehouse of ancient stone flanked by pale, crumbling minarets. On either side, worn steps burrow into the structure and twist inward, leading up to an open patio of cracked-tile mosaic. Holes in the surrounding brick indicate where wooden beams once spanned the patio, perhaps supporting rows of grape vines. Elsewhere, dry fountains, broken shards of pottery, and a worn stone trough indicate traces of what was once a lush and well-tended garden. Currently, the gatehouse’s sole decoration consists of swarms of black flies buzzing above scattered piles of fetid dung.
Getting closer to the gatehouse does reveal one thing - about a hundred feet distance from the gatehouse sees several gnolls maneuvering themselves around the gatehouse, trying to remain unseen but obviously aware of the group's presence. One stands tall and above the cracking stoneworks of the gatehouse and cries out, his voice hoarse and monstrous, "Come closer and you die! The Carrion King's castle is ours!"
Is it now? laughed Apollo quietly under his breath from the back of the party, longbow still in hand, currently held in a non-offensive manner as he resists the urge to end the life of this gatekeeping mutt.
Kori looks at the others, before asking "If we turned away now, how many of them do you think would come out after us? They are stupid, we could taunt them to chase us into the open, then we slaughter a small group alone. Hit and run."
"That sounds like a good idea. I do not think storming in there would be the best tactic." Aeris says as he glances at Apollo as he says the last bit. "I think we could get a few to follow, probably somewhere between ten and twenty. Gnolls tend to prefer using their numbers to their advantage."
Raising an eyebrow, Apollo looked to Kori considerably surprised.
Those thoughts are probably best kept in your head. I could take them out from here, but if we don't get moving soon they'll know something's up and rain down arrows upon us.
His words remained out of earshot from the Gnoll's, but the man had other ideas in his head.
Do you see me firing my arrows? If I wanted to, I'd have done so by now. he said to Aeris.
If we're to lure them out here anyway, we don't know how many are inside those walls, so why don't you fall back with me Kori and fire at them from afar, while whitey and Je'Grik wait either side of the door ahead for the Gnoll's to come running out, catching them off guard in the process? The ones deeper within that coming running to the noise out here won't know to look around the outside walls and that's when D and J can strike!
"Because they already saw us, from this far away, so it's too late to sneak someone up to either side of the gate. We need to lure them somewhere we have cover." She looks around for the nearest spot outside of view from their guard towers.
You're missing the point, Kori. They know we're here, that's obvious but if we're covering the guys who want to take point up front, if any run out of that gate, D and J are likely to catch the ones unaware of our exact location off guard.
Sighing, Apollo pulled up his bow as it remained hidden from Nom, before popping off a shot.
Well, this'll lure them out.... he said, as he soared through the air, towards the face of the closest Gnoll present.
So much for a meaningful plan. This'll bring about the same result anyway.
Brek winces as Apollo tru to his reckless nature fires off an arrow first....
Even Gnolls stupid as they are know that they have an advantage in numbers and behind those walls. he thinks.
Turning to Aeris, Brek asks.
"I lack the ability to do wide area spells. Do you have something prepared for this to flush them out? Or if you would. Make yourself unseen and scout out the wall for us?"
Aeris turns to Brek, "I think I have just the thing." he says with a smile. "Would a fireball or lightning bolt work?"
"The point is, they have towers, walls, and bows. We have nothing except bows. We need to move to where they HAVE to come out to attack us or else they do it from the safety of their towers. That's what towers are for, to see and shoot the enemy as they try to get in. Even with us shooting at them, they will still see the others moving up. The only way to try and stay sneaky is lure them out by them having to come find us, and that won't happen standing here in the middle of their front yard."
Better get moving then, or at least find an alternate way into this place.
.
Dmitri sighs a long deep sigh as the arrow goes flying, sheathing his scythe. Pulling out his sickle, he also draws out his new shield, which proudly displays the symbol of his faith on the front, although it's yet to be desecrated.
Bracing for the inevitable rain of arrows, Dmitri scoffs, cursing under his breathe in a foreign language before speaking normally. "For the love of everything..." he says as he prepares to block wayward arrows.
Brek curses as he takes cover and brings a spell to armor himself.
"Fireball would be good...." he tells Aeries.
"Though the others might not be so agreeable..."
As Apollo fires off his shot to begin the hostilities, a gnoll near the gatehouse yelps in pain when the arrow pierces its shoulder. The other gnolls growl in anger and shift to more offensive poses, ready to attack the interlopers.
Brek, anticipating a difficult combat, sheathes himself in force energy to protect himself from harm. At the same time, Dmitri sheathes his scythe and draws his new shield, going for a more defensive combat style this time around.
Initiative:
Brek - 22
Dmitri - 19
Aeris - 19
Kori - 12
Gnolls - 10
Apollo - 6
Je'Grik - 4
The winds swirl around Aeris as he rises into the air. He begins murmuring in Auran and casts a spell. A thin, barely visible layer of force coats his body in a manner quite similar to Brek's spell.
"Draw them out," she says as she fires at the wounded one, before moving back, to encourage the gnolls to get further away from the gate in order to attack them. "It'll make it harder for them to run back inside once they get beaten."
Kori manages to fire past the cover that the gnolls stand behind and pierce the skin of the the gnoll that was already injured by Apollo's arrow, ensuring that her arrow joins his in sticking out of the gnoll's body.
Snarling with anger and glee, the three uninjured gnolls fire at those that they consider the greatest and easiest threats to eliminate - Aeris, floating above the rest of his compatriots, and Apollo, who fired first. They are startlingly accurate, and two arrows pierce Apollo's skin while one pierces Aeris'. Their arrows also seem to be poisoned, as pain courses out from the wounds through the bloodstream of the injured, weakening their bodies.
Seeing that Apollo is injured, Je'Grik touches him with a wave of positive energy healing, sealing up the wounds that were caused by the arrows. The arrows fall out of Apollo as the wounds fully close. Then, he heeds Kori's words and moves away with her.
At the same time, the one injured gnoll ducks out of the fight and lopes back into the House of the Beast.
Initiative:
Brek - 22
Dmitri - 19
Aeris - 19
Kori - 12
Gnolls - 10
Apollo - 6
Je'Grik - 4
Aeris, winces in pain as the poison seeps in but he doesn't let it stop him from returning the favor.
Aeris floats down to the ground, clearly in pain from his wound.
The flames engulf the temple's defenders with a deafening roar, and the screams of pain from inside tell more than the burns left behind of the effects of Aeris' spell.
"Nice work but are you fine?" Brek helps Aeris up seeing that he's wounded. Motioning Aeris away further from the gnolls.
Staggering back from the two unexpected shots, Apollo grabs his chest, looking up only to see his enemies erupt in fire.
Curse those damn dogs!
Holding up against the poison for now, Apollo fires off another arrow at the closest and now charred Gnoll he can see, hoping to put one of the many creatures in front of him well and truly down.
Nom in the meantime rears back behind his human friend, cautious of the flames that had just appeared.
"Well? Aeris must surely have given them a rather 'warm' greeting. Think they'll come out and chase us?"
Drawing his sickle, Dmitri sees the oncoming storm of the gnolls, and can't help but smirk as the arrows lodge into Apollo. Putting up his shield, he moves a bit, taking full defense and getting prepared to dodge arrows himself.
Kori tries to focus her fire on one of the more wounded dog-men, hoping to take one out of the fight before it flees. She realizes none of the others are going to move, so she takes cover behind Dmitri. If he's just going to stand there and take the hits, she might as well use him to do the same.