"Transportation back to the Plane of Fire. That is what we require. We will discuss payment after the interlopers, invaders, have promised us what we need."
If you can do it Brek, just give them what they want.
Hopefully they won't drag something nasty back out to attack us instead.
Brek's mouth falls open at that.
Speechless....That...that... was power beyond what he could control...for now..
"That calls for power beyond what I can do for now but in time perhaps I could learn to open such a portal but not now." he mutters unhappily.
Swiftly realizing that these creatures were probably the type to respond to bad news improperly, Dmitri sighed. In his best possible way, he looked at them and placed his scythe at the ground, removing the cold ichor from his weapon and speaking plainly.
"I realize that that is most likely not the best of news to you, and I do sincerely apologize, but our journey remains prominent. Should you allow us passage safely through these tunnels I can safely promise that we would return when we are able to open such a portal. It could be days, weeks, or a year, but as the speaker for this group I can firmly promise that you would be rewarded in time for assisting us in the destruction of the gnolls." he says as he approaches.
"All we ask for is either safe passage, or the allowance to leave this place, whether through the passage, or through the way we came unmolested. Should you choose to let us leave, we shall, but we will not return to help you, and for that I apologize, but you should understand this." he points out, tossing his hand about and gesturing to and from the points he'd mentioned.
He waits patiently for a response.
"It would seem," says one of the elementals, somewhat coldly (ironic, I know), "That you have nothing to offer us, then. Leave if you wish, and return when you have something to give us."
He hesitates a second, and then continues for a few more seconds. "You won't find a way into the gnoll lair without one of us. Unless you plan on helping us, I'd suggest you go back to where you weak surface folk find it more comfortable."
Dmitri scoffs, shaking his head and slowly starts laughing as he grabs his weapon with 2 hands. Placing one hand on his face, he pulls the hair beyond his eye and looks them straight. "That's a funny way to pronounce "Kill us, we're useless." he says as he raises his weapon and triggers it's magic once more, with a wide, lustful smile on his face.
Well, here it goes. Leaving's still an option, but it's good to know I'm not the only hot-headed one here. Still, I'd prefer not to kill things without good reason and there are other ways around....they just hold more danger.
As Dmitri readies himself for combat, Apollo quickly glances around the room, specifically looking for any corridors that look like they may lead in a direction other than the one the party entered through.
If he wants to fight, that's fine. I'll use this distraction to look for any routes leading into Ghartok's s***** lair.
Apollo, you can see that beyond this landing, the passage continues winding up from here, at an incline and past where your human's vision can see.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
While Apollo waits for his compatriots to finish off the creatures that stand in their way, Brek takes a step forward, drawing the magical dagger that he'd gotten in the Battle Market. Then, he waves his empty hand and speaks a word in Ignan, coating one of the salamanders' spears with a layer of grease.
Unfortunately for him, the salamander jerks his spear away from the line of grease, preventing it from being affected by the spell, just before he and his ally charge forward at Dmitri, the one who threatened them so, stabbing at him with their spears.
Both of them jab at him, but both of their spears rebound harmlessly off of his resolute black full plate armor.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
[/b]Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15[/b]
Should have just let us pass mumbled Apollo, as he stood there with Nom, watching with a slightly sorrow filled expression as Dmitri and Brek engage with the creatures.
Their deaths have been meaningless. Dmitri and the others can do as they please. I'll save my strength for the real enemies here.
Pulling out his Bow, the man just stands and watches, resting his Longbow on the ground and using it as a leaning post.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
Taking a five foot step forward, Dmitri grins widely, brandishing his scythe in a whirl of excitement. "For once I tried to be nice!" he says as he swipes at one rather widely as it dodges. Continuing to press forward he gets his weapon even closer to it's chest as it nearly dodges once again. Raising his weapon higher, he looks at it with the cruel gaze of his right eye as his hair covers his other one, leaving only the other exposed. "We were the ones being charitable here you foolish snakes!" he says as he lands the scythe squarely in the one nearest to him's chest, sinking it in as much he could and letting the sting of the cold sizzle against them.
Kori is surprised by the odd sudden shift from Dmitri, offering alliance and assistance to the fire-snakemen, then attacking once they refuse. Either way, it is combat and she will do her part. She follows up with an attack of her own, drawing her longsword as she moves up to the fight. She attacks the same one as Dmitri, but her not expecting to fight caught her off-guard and her swing is clumsy.
Aeris, having guessed that things weren't going to go well wasn't that surprised when things turned violent. Guessing that as they are natives of the Plane of Fire, they don't particularly like the cold too much he prepares to cast a spell. He steps back and extends his hand towards the closest Salamander.
Kori draws her sword and leaps into battle, but her blade isn't able to penetrate the rocky, thick skin of the fiery creatures that they face. Dmitri's blade finds better luck, and not only does the blade penetrate his opponent's rough skin, but its new frost damage erupts into a wash of steam, and the creature cries in pain.
The other creature lets out a similar cry at Aeris' frost ray when it hits him.
Brek leaves Aeris' side and hikes up the hill and around the creatures, readying his dagger for a surprise strike from behind.
The salamanders unleash another assault on Dmitri, using their spears and their tails, but his armor protects him further from any harm.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
Kori is pleased to have Dmitri nearby to draw their attentions, as she flails poorly in the direction of the one she attacked prior. Missing like she does, she tries to ram him with the spiked plate over her left shoulder, but her aim is even further off.
Moving up as silently as he can Brek grins as Dmtri does what he does best. Drawing the enemy's attention from the rest of them.
The hills were giving him enough cover, he sneaks over to get a far better position in order for him to get a better vantage point and maybe a spell or two.
Following through with his threats, Dmitri plunges the scythe deeper into the lizard man's chest before tearing it out and savoring the sizzle of ice on heat. Relishing it a bit too much, however, he goes for yet another plunge, but the Lizard man dodges this one. Whether through fear or dextrous skill, he couldn't be sure.
As the blade swings wide, he sneers. "Thinking out, here, but we'd still be willing to help you if you'd just submit!" he says as the scythe swings into the ground.
Aeris seeing the Salamander in pain continues with his icy assault.
Kori and Dmitri flail about in the melee with the salamanders, unable to injure either of them, though Aeris does have continued success with his rays of frost energy. The power of his spells, though, doesn't match up to his accuracy with them, and the salamanders appears barely fazed by even the frost damage.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
Well away from combat, Apollo heads back the way he came, searching for the ground elemental the party originally spoke to.
From his vantage point, Brek wonders why Apollo seems o not want to with this time until he hears his words. Inwardly he groans.
The man's Obsessed wth Gnolls...Those Elementals will burn him word for word just to make their point...
On the plus side, it seems that the rest of the party was making headway with the salamanders and most likely with Dmtri enjoying himself the sadist.......the salmanders won't last long unless something happens.
When Apollo goes to try and find the earth elemental of before, he finds the earth elemental is already at the doorway back to the antechamber they were in, and has enlarged himself to be significantly larger than he was before. Not only that, but he has a friend, similarly enlarged. Each of them stands more than five feet tall, a great improvement over their previously miniscule size. "Get out of my rocks, meanie!" yells Andgronakraks, and the two mephits attack Apollo.
Unfortunately for them, Apollo is both nimble and well-protected by armor and magic, and they are unable to harm him.
At the same time, the salamanders continue their assault on Dmitri and Kori. While one of the salamanders switches targets to Kori, trying to slap and stab her, the other salamander attempts to wrap its serpentine tail around Dmitri, crushing him.
Kori easily evades the creature's tail, though her sidestep takes her body into the path of the creature's spear. Fortunately for her, her magical breastplate holds up against the attack.
Dmitri, though, is in potentially dire straits as the salamander successfully wraps its tail around his torso and begins to squeeze. At the same time, the thing's unnaturally hot flesh begins to heat Dmitri's jet-black armor, burning him.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
Feeling the heat sink into his flesh rather deeply and taking in the delicious sting of the skin, Dmitri scoffs before making a wide grin. Freeing a hand from his scythe he lets out a low giggle, taking a glance over at Kori as his flesh sears against the lizard man's. "He's not as good at this as you are." he points out as he plunges his dark, pulsing hand into the creature's shoulder. He smiles as he does.
"It's inconvenient for both of us if you don't let go." he says with a smile.
Once again Kori tries to use any available weapon on the more injured fire-man. She takes advantage that it is 'wrapped-up' in attacking Dmitri. The hit with her blade disrupts her shoulder bash, almost sending her sprawling to the floor. She is still new to the technique, and clearly still needs to work out some of the difficult moves.
Kori's blade finds purchase in the rocky flesh of the creature she fights, and it yells in pain as the sword pierces it. Dmitri's hand successfully discharges negative energy into the creature he faces, though for some reason, Lilith doesn't appear to favor him with as much power as he's used to.
Aeris continues his frosty assault on the salamander engaged in combat with Kori, his ray striking the creature for the third time, though because he's using relatively weak magic, it does very little to the creature.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
As the two Earth Mephit's step towards Apollo, blocking his path, the man puts his right hand up, letting out a confused sigh.
Man, you've gotta be kidding.
Moving his hand from up front and across his chest, Apollo hangs his head down slightly, shaking his head from side to side.
You know what...
Turning to Nom he says quietly; Nom, you know what to do. Let's just get this over and done with.
Dropping his Bow, Apollo swings out his Hammer from its harness and slowly moves towards the now medium sized Mephit's ahead of him, targeting Andgronakraks ally first.
Nom does the same, but attempts to bite through the rocky creatures shell.
Brek wonders what best he can do but seeing no other option for him, flicks his finger and sends out a tiny bolt of green acidic energy.
Apollo wasn't quite ready to be in a battle against the mephits, so his first strike wasn't very powerful. The spikes of his earthbreaker simply bounce off of the rock that comprises the earth mephits' bodies.
His dinosaur is a little bit more effective, teeth crunching into the mephit, though shallowly. The mephit laughs madly before it and Andronakraks open their mouths very widely and spew forth a jumble of pebbles at high velocity.
Roaring from the negative energy dispensed by Dmitri, the salamander that is encapsulating him tries to squeeze him again. Because Dmitri failed to try and free himself, it finds itself in a much easier position with that, and it continues to constrict him.
Frustrated by its inability to damage Kori with conventional weapons, the other salamander also attempts to grapple her. Despite her excellent training with grappling, it manages to succeed.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
As the tail snakes its way around his waist, Dmitri scoffs. The very worst thing that frustrated him the most is that he honestly wasn't even upset with the salamanders. More rather he was infuriated by someone who found themselves absent from this fight, and that was Apollo he thought to himself with a fire.
Reaching down, he grabbed the Salamander and squeezed his tail as he began to attempt to remove the creature from his body. "It would seem you've been kind to your mates." he points out as he sinks his fingers in.
Once the thing has decided to wrap her up, she is more than done wasting her time with it. If it wants to play her game, she'll oblige. She grits her teeth against the damage, bringing her weapon arm out and swinging down hard on the thing wrapped around her. She then shifts her and its body so that it squeezes where her armor spike are, causing it to have to stab itself just to hold onto her.
Kori swings powerfully at the creature as it tries to grapple her, though her sword just bounces off of the thing's carapace the first time. When it's wrapped around her, it realizes it may have made its last mistake, and is shredded to bits by her longsword attack and armor spikes.
Aeris scoffs at the state of the battle, and casts a spell. He then touches the little air elemental that floats beside him, and the air elemental is charged with electricity. Then, the elemental charges forward in an attempt to touch the salamander grappling Dmitri.
The electroshock is explosively powerful, and the salamander jerks and twitches before uncoiling from Dmitri and falling to the ground.
Initiative:
Apollo - 23
Brek - 19
Salamanders - 19
Kori - 18
Dmitri - 15
Aeris - 15
Not a great start, but...
Just so you know, being made of stone and all, my friend next to me might not be all that effective, but this hammer here Apollo says, nodding to his World Shaker, will break you.
So much for my threat. If I keep this up I'll be no good for anything!
[][][o][o][o][o][o][][]
[][][][o][o][o][][][]
[][][][] [o][][][][]
[][][][][Meph1][][]
Example above is for a 15ft cone, so if two characters are next to each other, they'd both only be effected once as they're not in the range.
[][o][o][]
[x][][][x]
Above is the only way both can be effected.
If you want us to take damage twice regardless, here are the saves:
Seeing their stronger salamander allies both defeated is too much for the earth mephits, and they immediately flee. Apollo takes a swing at one...
...and completely annihilates Andronakraks' ally, though as the earph mephit dies, it simply vanishes into thin air. Andronakraks, on the other hand, gets away. He can fly faster than anybody in the room can run, and makes it away and up the passage to safety.
Just as the combat ends, however, four more figures appear at the top of the rocky slope, farther into the room that the party is currently investigating. Three of the same salamanders as before, and one that seems....bigger. And redder. Instead of a spear, he carries a staff (that glows red-hot) and the molten fissures on his skin glow hotter.
"So. Why have you infiltrated my home, mortals? Answer quickly, or face death."
His voice is like rock melting - deep and solid, but smooth and kind at the same time.
Gasping as the salamander goes limp around him, Dmitri breathes and pats his armor. Still just as sleek as he'd left it, but a few burn scratches... He then turns to see that there is company above, and he grimaces. He does, however, know authority when he sees it, and no doubt far more ruthless, but, the question was... how territorial? He wondered.
Breathing a bit, Dmitri raised his head and hid his eye away. "We seek to purge the gnolls from this mountain, and, quite honestly, I'm pretty tired of it at this point." he claims, turning to see Apollo in the distance and using every ounce of will power he has to ignore his recent absense in the combat.
Turning again to look at the salamander on the staircase, he smiles. "On the bright side, we seem to have met the head of this area, yes? Wonderful. We've no desire to kill any more of your men. We merely wish to enter the house of the beast above." he points out. Looking down, he shook his head. "These threatened us when we asked for the same." he says.
Looking up and stroking his chin, he smiles. "You wish to return to the plane of elemental fire, do you not?" he asks, hand firmly on his scythe.
Kori lets her rage slip after the fight, he fierceness of her anger dying with those that attacked them. She takes a breather, trying to regain herself and her composure. Between breaths, she whispers to Dmitri, [smaller]"They fight hard, ...and I have no real quarrel with them.... I need just a moment... to calm my nerves.... talk as much as you often do."
"Unfortunately," the lead salamander begins, "I am not the leader of this enclave. That honor, such as it is, belongs to Thratkinas. I am Lesaar."
"You wish to go to the House of the Beast, above? Yes, I know a way, a back way, a hidden way. You can get in without the dog-men ever knowing about it." It smiles, a wicked grin. "But you will never enter it without my help."
The fire creature's face twists, and you get the impression of him raising an eyebrow. "Yes, we wish to return to our home plane. I have been trying to gather the power for years. Why? Do you possess the power?"
Dmitri listens to Kori for just a moment, realizing that her rage had taken a lot out of her. He'd seen it plenty of times before. He shot her a glance before looking to Brek and back to Lesaar. He smiled again, raising a brow beaded with sweat. This one reeks of power thirst he thought to himself. Perfect...
"We do not." he says, simply. "But, my friend, we've access to the rest of the world unlike yourselves, and I'm not the type to go back on my word, I assure you. I threatened your men with death if they attacked us, and... well..." he says, looking down at the salamanders.
Looking back up, he shrugs with a chuckle. "My sincerest apologies. However..." he points out getting somewhat closer to the creature. "They're bodies didn't return to the realm of elemental fire. You're natives, yes? You've been here far too long for that to happen." he states, with the basic knowledge of planes.
"Lesaar, was it? Listen close, as I believe you're not the type for foolish bloodshed. Atleast, I hope. The treasure I imagine is in Ghartok's lair would very easily cover the cost of whatever spell is needed. That, or you could merely pay us to retrieve it. Regardless, there are many ways for us to help you get away from this forsaken plane of existence, yes?"
Tossing up a hand and smiling. "How badly do you want away from this world?" he asks.
Lesaar laughs at Dmitri, a low rumbling sound. "Money is not an object, little charming human. If the problem were to simply pay for it, we would have left this cold world behind centuries ago."
"If you can find a spellcaster with sufficient power to bridge the gaps between worlds, then you can come to me with demands and threats. I will gladly bow and take them if it will get me home. Otherwise, I have a few demands for you, and threats to back them up."