Arani puts an arrow to her bowstring and waits just behind the corner, ready to step out and fire if Falina's plan proves unsuccessful.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
While her comrades hold their collective breath and (perhaps) second-guess their tiefling sorceress, Falina quietly slips down the hallway and into range before casting a spell to charm the occupied Asmodean. Though her plan is sound and her execution flawless, her target's mind is stronger and more focused than expected. At the same moment Falina knows that her spell has failed to take hold, the Asmodean realizes his mind has just been attacked. His eyes fall upon Falina and widen as he calls out, "Intruder!" Figuring the jig is up, Jessibel starts singing an inspirational battle song .
Seeing that the jig is up, T'chazzar rushes to the front line, drawing his blades as he goes.
Leora is unhappy but not surprised to see an Amodean at the end of the secret passage. Hanging back while Falina sneaks down the hallway, she is in a good position to give Arani a boost. She takes out her flask and pretends to mix something in it. "Eye and whisker of cat, lend Arani your grace!"
Davina moves up behind T'chazzar. "It was worth a try."
Smiling as she feels Leora's magic take hold, Arani steps out, firing a shot past Falina.
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MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Leora bids Arani to hold her fire a moment longer, casting a spell to increase her aim and general dexterity. The archer's subsequent shot--not her best--is still good enough to take the flat-footed Asmodean in the shoulder, badly wounding but not killing the man. As Jessibel continues to sing, T'chazzar and Davina take the fight to the man...and whomever he shouted his warning to.
The Asmodean and his comrades react swiftly: Circling and ducking chains, one robed man emerges from the shadows to throw a punch at T'chazzar. He misses badly, but may still have turned the battle in the Asmodeans' favor, creating a bottleneck in the narrow corridor north of the chain web room.
The redactor Arani shot backs this first monk up, while T'chazzar and Davina think they saw another form slink off to the east. A moment later, the sound of a door opening seems to support this.
Jessibel moves up a bit, trying to stay within earshot so that her inspirational song will still reach her allies.
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Davina drinks her extract of Shield, and stands steady.
The drow wastes no time in bringing his blades to bear against the Asmodean monk (redactor 2).
In a shocking twist, he actually lands one of the attacks!
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
T'chazzar manages to open a decent wound on the redactor's forearm, but it's not life-threatening. If the bottleneck the redactor's created is to be broken swiftly, it'll take a seeing-eye arrow shot from Arani through her gathered friends or perhaps a spell from Falina or Leora. Falina tries a pair of magic missiles , but after the glowing projectiles slam home the redactor's still standing.
Falina felt her spell fail and cursed in anger at this man and his willpower. She knew there was now trouble and she should have let the others handle him their way. She chanted and gestured at the man sending a pair of energy projectiles slamming into him before drawing the wand Jessi had given her earlier.
"The bottleneck might work in our favor," Leora murmurs to her friends. "If T'chazzar can hold them back, the rest of us can pick them off one by one. "
Since there isn't much she can do to help T'chazzar from the back of the secret tunnel, she thumps Arani on the back while casts another spell. "You've got this! I know you'll pull of some kind of crazy trick shot!"
Feeling the boost of confidence that came with Leora's encouragement, Arani closes her eyes for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she rapidly fires a pair of arrows before exhaling.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Arani's first shot might've made T'chazzar, Davina, and Falina wonder if she'd fired it before or after opening her eyes (if they'd known the Black Thorn had shut her eyes to focus a moment before loosing her attack)...but in hindsight, this sort of thing is to be expected when you step between an archer and her target. Arani's first arrow goes high, hitting the wall over the doorway and showering her comrades in shards of wood. The second, however, somehow finds a lane through the crowded hall and strikes the redactor in the head, dropping him.
Unfortunately, the redactor's death is not fully in vain: His bottlenecking tactic has allowed one of his fellows to circle around behind the party, appearing (unarmed but with his fists at the ready) in the doorway behind Leora.
An instant before the second redactor appears at the party's rear, however, an even bigger problem takes the fallen man's place at the end of the narrow corridor. There's a sound of multiple footfalls and claws upon a stone floor, accompanied by an eager panting. T'chazzar then finds himself face-to-face with a gaunt, rust-colored canine the size of a large wolf. Those of you who attended the Aria Park protest saw a similar beast that day, one that seared folks with its flaming breath and savaged them with its strong jaws.
T'chazzar also hears the previously wounded redactor flee, calling out an alarm as he goes.
Jessibel, not seeing what poor T'chazzar's facing and wanting to conserve her bardic performance until the whole party can benefit from it, stops singing, clicks the heels of her snazzy boots, and attempts to tumble/squeeze/push her way through Leora and past the newly-arrived Asmodean. It takes a lot of effort and she needs to dodge a punch from the robed creep, but somehow Jessi finds herself in the north hall on the other side of her foe.
It's a hell hound, either Nox's pet from the protest or one of its litter mates. An outsider, the beast can breathe fire (usually 1-2 times per minute) and a bite from its jaws inflicts fire damage as well.
Hell hounds are immune to fire attacks but vulnerable to cold.
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I prepared the wrong extracts today." Davina mutters. She tries to tumble through to beak the bottleneck.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Davina feels some of the same urgency that Jessibel did, and she's about as successful in her attempt to slip past the hell hound as the bard was with the redactor. The hellbeast tries to bite her and misses, but it prevents her from passing.
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"Good idea," Leora nods to Jessi. "Let's take this guy down so we can go help the others." She turns around, drawing her rapier against the guy who snuck up behind them and slashing at him.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Leora is indeed able to see the nature of the threat her friends to the south face [ooc](Jessibel was kind of tucked around the corner without line of sight). She gets a good start on removing the nearby redactor by sticking the pointy end of her rapier into the side of her foe's gut.
Nobody is in front to see T'chazzar's face as he takes on a grim expression, his mouth turning slightly downward, his eyes crinkling slightly in a squint. Then something new happens: a trail of starry motes follow from the points of his backswords as he drives them both hard at the hellhound without reservation!
Seeing danger in both directions, Ariani fires her first arrow over Leora's shoulder, before twisting and sending a second streaking down the hall to target T'chazzar's opponent.
Falina realized there was a redactor behind them when it was too late to do anything about it. It seemed that Leora and Jessi had that one dealt with already. the presence of the hell hound was another mater entirely. Not liking the thing so close to her Falina cast a spell and again sent a pair of missiles lancing out to slam into it before backing down the hallway towards Arani.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
The little something extra T'chazzar puts into his attacks yields no results, as the hell hound is able to dodge both stab attempts*. Arani, likewise, fires off two attacks from her bow, having better luck.
You may have heard tales of monks deflecting away arrows or even catching them with their bare hands mid-flight. That's what the redactor near Leora tries to do. He indeed catches Arani's arrow...but not with his hand. He's a second too slow, and the arrow whizzes through his open hand and he catches it in an eye socket, dropping to the floor to die while Jessibel scoffs in amusement at the botched attempt.
The Black Thorn's second arrow again miraculously misses her bunched allies, clipping the hell hound on one of its forelegs.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Falina sends two more magic missiles pounding into the hell hound. Davina, not quite confident in her ability to tumble past the infernal beast, instead retreats after Falina, knowing that staying put will make her a likely target for the monster's fiery breath.
Indeed, the hell hound seems to be inhaling deeply, but when Falina and Davina retreat the thing shows some intelligence, opting to hold back its breath weapon for now. Instead, it bites at T'chazzar. While the drow's previous attacks didn't impress, his defenses hold and the thing's teeth chomp on thin air. A redactor passes behind the hell hound, likely trying to hook around behind the party, and T'chazzar hears more sets of footfalls nearing his position, coming from the east.
Moments later, Jessibel tells Leora, "I'm going to try to hook around the same way this guy did. T'chazzar needs our help!" And with those words, the impetuous bard is gone, jogging west before turning south down the wide, columned hallway.
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T'chazzar manages to barely nick the hound again.
Seeing The girls retreat and T'chazzar facing off against the frightful beast alone, Arani rests a hand on Sabrina's shoulder for a brief moment, using the leverage to vault herself into a position to run along the wall, kicking off to lightly push off of Davinah's shoulders as she propels herself into a somersault, putting herself between them and the enemy while firing off a hurried shot, to at least get the beasts attention and back up the dark elf.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
T'chazzar does more than nick the hell hound: He feels the power of his smite tear at his evil foe, and he sees the sudden fear and doubt in the wicked beast's eyes.
Arani closes and fires what could potentially be the killing arrow, but her aim is off and the arrow goes high, clattering off some of the dangling chains in the room beyond the hell hound.
Since Jessi stopped her inspirational singing, Leora boosts her allies's with a prayer disguised as mixing something alchemical up in her flask.
Falina aimed the wand at the hellhound and sent a missile streaking out at it. the dart slammed into the thing with unerring accuracy. Sadly there was little force behind it when it struck and it didn't do very much damage.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Falina's wand-based missile slams home, causing the hell hound to wobble momentarily, but it regains its balance to stay in the fight just a little bit longer. Leora casts bless, knowing that there are more Asmodeans massing to repel the intruders.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
T'chazzar braces for the hell hound's next attack, counting four redactors in the room to the south, two of whom head west, likely to intercept Jessibel. One of the others bumps into some of the dangling chains and is slowed briefly, but he drops into a crouch, ready to attack should the intruders get past the infernal canine. The hellhound, however, has apparently seen enough and taken a sufficient beating: With a snarl at the drow, the intelligent beast withdraws from combat, heading east.
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T'chazzar steps up, deciding that the only way around is through.
In some kind of miracle he manages to strike the redactor (#5) with both blows of his swords!
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Davina drinks her extract of Expeditious Retreat and follows Jess down the hall. "I'm supposed to be keeping you alive young lady. Running off is a terrible idea."
She gets around the corner and stops giving the redactors a glare.
"Bad choice missy, bad choice." she mutters as she moves up next to Jess and attacks the Redactor (3) in front of her.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Davina speeds after errant Jessibel, turning the corner just in time to see the young bard deliver a decent stab (for her) to a redactor who's already got one of Arani's arrows sticking out of him. The fellow looks weak enough that maybe Jessi can finish him off, so Davina closes on and stabs the second Asmodean blocking the hallway, causing the fellow to grunt in serious pain.
When Davina chides her running off as a bad choice, Jessi replies, "So is leaving T'ch...uh...Shadowblades to fight a hell hound and all these Thrune Goons by himself!"
Speaking of Shadowblades...T'chazzar scores a pair of shallow hits on the redactor blocking his path. Though most of his concentration is on his foe, the drow can see a dead Asmodean dangling in the web of spiked chains that's spread throughout the chamber.
With fewer enemies to deal with Falina chanted, gestured, and sent a pair of missiles at the redactor T'chazzar was fighting.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Falina's magic missiles slam home, but the redactor still stands...barely.
Silent in her focus, Arani shoots over T'chazzar's shoulder.
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MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Indeed, Arani's archery is special in this moment. Her first arrow drops the redactor bottlenecking the corridor, and she manages to put her second arrow into the shoulder of the next Asmodean, despite the partial cover the wall provides him.
"They've broken through!" the wounded man yells, choosing not to step up to challenge T'chazzar in his wounded state; instead he rushes up some stairs to the west to help his friends deal with Davina and Jessibel. The bard's foe tries the old one-two, catching Jessi in the ribs with his second punch ; the bard retaliates with a rapier thrust to the gut, dropping her attacker. Davina is spared a punch to the face when her invisible shield thwarts her opponent's sneaky uppercut.
You notice the fleeing redactor seemed to be almost shouting back over his shoulder to the east when he mentioned your group breaking the bottleneck; you suspect more allies and perhaps even an ambush attempt from that direction.
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MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
The overwhelming stench of rotting flesh fills this wide, table-strewn chamber. A web of blackened barbed chains strangles its way throughout the room, supporting the decayed corpse of a man in the red robes of an Asmodean redactor. At the center of the web, suspended above the flagstones by its black iron tendrils, rests a fist-sized, twelve-sided box fashioned from wood and bronze.
Wooden cases along the southwestern wall have been smashed and overturned.
You notice something most peculiar: The areas of black on the spiked chains seem to be slowly moving, seeping along the iron toward the redactor's dangling corpse. You may attempt an additional DC 20 Knowledge (planes) check.
Seeing that Davina and Jessi have run off the one way, and T'chazzar has finished off the Asmodean blocking the other end of the hallway, Leora decides to follow the drow.
Leora does her best to dodge the chains in the big room, but between her heavy armor and her natural clumsiness, manages to get tangled up. She notices the black gunk on the chains moving around, but is too distracted by the combat to think too hard about it.
As she makes it to the remaining redactors, she asks them, "What happened to your buddy back there, in the chains? Didn't burn enough books to make the cut?"
"The hellhound ran off. He's also better at hurting things than you are." Davina mutters as she stabs at the redactor in front of her.
Arani follows T'chazzar, in the direction of the fleeing opposition.
MANY STEPS MONASTERY/HQ OF THE SACRED ORDER OF ARCHIVISTS (8 Gozran)
Leora moves through the chain room after T'chazzar and Arani break the logjam at the end of the hall, moving to engage a redactor. Meanwhile, out of sight, Davina again stabs her Asmodean foe, leaving the man in rough shape, barely standing. The fellow throws a flurry of blows at Davina, but nothing connects. Jessibel tries to put the man down but her rapier stab is pretty poor, missing by a wide margin.
"Yes, definitely an ambush to our left," T'chazzar whispers to Arani after catching a flash of movement behind the slightly-cracked set of double doors to the southeast. "I'll trigger it if you'll thwart it with your arrows."
The noble drow moves along the wall, headed east when he suddenly curses and engages another hidden Asmodean lurking in a nearby corridor, stabbing once with his main weapon and drawing blood. He dodges a flurry of blows from the monk redactor. Meanwhile, Arani and Falina follow the drow as far as the strange chain web chamber. They spy another pair of Asmodeans burst from a room to the southeast, one of whom tries to flank T'chazzar and one of whom gets snagged and bloodied when he tries to move into the web of chains.
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Caught in a flank, T'chazzar tries to stab the redactor to the north, hoping to at least force the fellow away from the rest of the fighting.
Leora takes a swing at the redactor in front of her, missing badly. Then she moves around him to try and help Davina get an advantage flanking her own wounded Asmodean buddy.
Falina knew that there was an impending ambush but she figured that freeing the others up would be a better idea. She aimed at the only redactor she could see and let fly with a bolt from the wand.