Kilarra smirks, leans down, and whispers a few choice slurs to Bharaz.
”A’ight. Everyone get in position. Ye’ve got three minutes before the show starts.”
Uruelleth gives Talia, Bharaz and the others a look. Speaking loud enough to be overheard, he says, "Let's move up to take a better look at the merchandise, shall we?"
Kilarra examines Goldshackle and her two personal guards then strides up to the pit, eyeing the merchandise. Noticing one on the far side she's interested in purchasing, she circles around the pit to get a closer look.
"Where you get this one?" she asks no one in particular. "It healthy?"
Ruel moseys through the crowd after Kilarra, hoping to appear like her bodyguard. He gives the guard a knowing wink and a sly grin when Kilarra bends over to look closer at the slaves.
Bharaz took a deep breath. He wasn’t good at lying. Nor was he ever comfortable being overtly threatening. It was the words of court that always came easiest to him. So he decided to do what he was most comfortable with. To give a fellow dwarf one last chance to see the sparks of the forge and to turn away from the dark. If she refused, then what would come would be on her head.
”Oi!” Bharaz yelled out when everyone was in position. ”Goldshackle! Hear me words!” He bellowed. ”Everyone, actually. What is happening here is wrong! This is nay the way of Torag! Listen to me words and be saved! Slavery is a sin in the eyes of the Forge Father! Salvation comes nay from the easy life, it comes from hard work and the satisfaction therein. This entire world was made on Torag’s Forge, and we are all thus his children. Nay just the dwarves, though it is we who have traditionally shown our father the most praise. All here may behind the protection of his hammer. I call on ye, to renounce the name Goldshackle! Return to ye clan, for it is nay too late to be saved!”
As Bharaz begins shouting his impassioned speech, all eyes turn to him, including Goldshackle and her guards. She looks furious as Bharaz continues to speak. She doesn’t seem the slightest bit interested in changing her ways, nor do any of her guards.
As for the other would-be buyers at the auction, some stare at Bharaz with cold, dead eyes, others snear at him, and still others look completely disgusted at his attempt to sway them from their current course. And yet, amongst the sea of people, Bharaz also spots a couple individuals who seem genuinely moved by Bharaz’s rousing monologue. They turn away from the slave pit in shame and slowly start moving away.
Of course, while the slavers and would-be buyers are focused on Bharaz, the rest of you have a chance to strike.
Talia focuses intently, her eyes turning back, the colors around her bleaching for a moment before she yanks Uruelleth through space, teleporting him next to Goldshackle.
In a flash, Uruelleth is next to Goldshackle. His falchion is in his hands with a blur as he lets his battle fury take him, and he brings it down hard onto the slaver.
As the battle erupts, Alayna's adrenaline surges. She gets a flash of a massive storm raging somewhere off in the distance and feels her connection to it. With an act of will, she shears off a piece of that storm and brings it forth in the courtyard. It appears: a roiling sphere of dark clouds flickering with lightning, right on top of the gnoll bodyguard. It immediately begins jolting the beast with lightning.
Achutla casts a spell on himself.
Achutla uses the distraction to cast a spell on himself before darting forward to bury his greatsword into the guard next to Uruelleth.
Kilarra takes a quick step to the side, up to Goldshackle, drawing both of her sawtooth sabres in a flash, then driving them into the dwarf.
Achutla casts a spell on himself.
Talia focuses intently, her eyes turning back, the colors around her bleaching for a moment before she yanks Uruelleth through space, teleporting him next to Goldshackle.
Kilarra takes a quick step to the side, up to Goldshackle, drawing both of her sawtooth sabres in a flash, then driving them into the dwarf. Despite the deadliness of Kilarra’s attack, Goldshackle seems to have an almost supernatural ability to detect the threat coming at her. Kilarra manages to injure the slaver, but her usual sneakiness has no effect and the dwarf doesn’t seem caught off guard.
Uruelleth, in a flash, is next to Goldshackle. His falchion is in his hands with a blur as he lets his battle fury take him, and he brings it down hard onto the slaver. He lands a solid blow, but she merely glares at him.
Alayna's adrenaline surges as the battle erupts. She gets a flash of a massive storm raging somewhere off in the distance and feels her connection to it. With an act of will, she shears off a piece of that storm and brings it forth in the courtyard. It appears: a roiling sphere of dark clouds flickering with lightning, right on top of the gnoll bodyguard. It immediately begins jolting the beast with lightning.
Bharaz’s distraction works, giving his allies a chance to take Goldshackle and her guards by surprise.
Achutla uses the distraction to cast a spell on himself before darting forward to bury his greatsword into the guard next to Uruelleth. He deals a strong blow and demoralizes his foe in the process.
Ruthilda Goldshackle laughs. “You think yourselves heroes, do you? Come to put an end to my market? The market only closes when I say it does. It’ll be open long after today.”
The slaver draws a short sword from her belt and takes a swing at Kilarra. She cuts into the slayer’s arm which also begins to bleed.
Tukh the gnoll cowers near the ground.
Red & Blue Guards wade into the crowd, drawing scimitars as they go. They get close to Jaxira and grin at her.
Orange & Yellow Guards move to aid Goldshackle, stopping near Kilarra and Achutla. They appear to study the human and the lizardfolk.
Purple Guard draws his scimitar and appears to study Kilarra for a moment before striking at her. He injures her some.
Green Guard moves near Achutla and draws his own scimitar. He appears to study the lizardfolk.
Grey Guard draws his scimitar and attacks Kilarra… also after studying her. He lands a solid attack.
Pink Guard, shaken but still in the fight, studies and strikes at the one who demoralized him - Achutla. He misses.
It seemed like everyone was ignoring him now that the action had started. Typical. He thought. Just because it looked like he was unarmed and unarmored. He disabused Goldshackle of that notion by sending a knife flying into her back. He doubted that it would drop her, but he was certain that it would at least leave a mark.
Uruelleth keeps up his attacks on Goldshackle, showing that ignoring him would mean death.
Achutla focuses on the wounded guard and continues to attack it, hoping to bring the guards down before his small strike team is overwhelmed completely.
Alayna steps up to the side of Bharaz as she watches the guards on their flank get closer. She still keeps her focus on the fighting near Goldshackle, and sees Kilarra taking some hits. Electricity surges around her and she sends a massive bolt of lightning at the guards. Her fathers device calls to her, creating a small protective bubble around Kilarra so the bolt leaves her unharmed, though the guards around her are affected.
Kilarra ignores the guards all around her, focusing on Goldshackle. She swings her blades repeatedly at the dwarf, hoping her aim is true.
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Kilarra ignores the guards all around her, focusing on Goldshackle. She swings her blades repeatedly at the dwarf, hoping her aim is true. The dwarf dodges all but one of Kilarra’s attacks, though the one that lands is a decent blow. The slayer continues to bleed a bit from Goldshackle’s wound.
Uruelleth keeps up his attacks on Goldshackle, showing that ignoring him would mean death. His first blow is solid and his second is massive, but the slaver is still alive… and looks a bit confused.
Alayna steps up to the side of Bharaz as she watches the guards on their flank get closer. She still keeps her focus on the fighting near Goldshackle, and sees Kilarra taking some hits. Electricity surges around her and she sends a massive bolt of lightning at the guards. Her father’s device calls to her, creating a small protective bubble around Kilarra so the bolt leaves her unharmed, though the guards around her are affected.
The grey guard dodges Alayna’s thundercloud attacks both times, but the lightning bolt is at least partially effective. It jolts through the purple and grey guards, significantly injuring them. Orange guard dodges part of the spell, but still takes some damage.
Talia
Bharaz thought, Typical. It seemed like everyone was ignoring him now that the action had started. Just because it looked like he was unarmed and unarmored. He disabused Goldshackle of that notion by sending a knife flying into her back. He doubted that it would drop her, but he was certain that it would at least leave a mark. Leave a mark it does, though the slaver yet lives. His second shot goes wide.
Jaxira begins casting a spell.
Achutla focuses on the wounded guard and continues to attack it, hoping to bring the guards down before his small strike team is overwhelmed completely. It takes two attacks, but Achutla brings down the pink guard who gurgles as he crumples to the ground.
Goldshackle seems disoriented for a moment before staring at her short sword. Then she thrusts it toward herself, grunting as the blade slices into her.
Tukh continues to cower.
Red Guard moves forward and slashes at Jaxira after studying her for a moment. Jaxira cries out as the guard’s blade cuts into her. Her concentration falters and the spell she was trying to cast fizzles out.
Blue Guard also moves forward and attacks Jaxira.
“Please…” Jaxira says as the guard’s blade cuts into her.
Orange Guard strikes twice at Kilarra. Both miss.
Yellow Guard attacks Achutla twice. One blow lands.
Purple Guard also attacks Kilarra twice. He misses as well.
Green Guard moves forward and attacks Achutla once. He lands a decent blow.
Grey Guard attacks Kilarra. The slayer looks bloody once the guard is finished.
Pink Guard is dead.
As the fight continues, screams sound out from the would-be buyers in the market. Besides Goldshackle and her guards, everyone begins surging towards the estate’s entrance. With all the bodies pressed together, it will still be a while before there’s more room to move.
[ooc]Achutla (-25 hp, divine power, 9 rounds, heroism, shield of faith, destruction & protection judgments)
Ruthilda Goldshackle (-178 hp)
Tukh
Red Guard
Blue Guard
Orange Guard (-30 hp)
Yellow Guard
Purple Guard (-60 hp)
Green Guard
Grey Guard (-60 hp)
Pink Guard (dead)
Kilarra (-57 hp, 1 bleed, barkskin,shield)
Uruelleth (shield, oil of keen edge, magic circle against evil)
Alayna
Talia (resist cold & electricity, overland flight, heightened awareness)
Bharaz (see invisibility, ability mastery)
Jaxira (-35 hp)
With the slaver no longer appearing to be a direct threat, Bharaz turned his attention towards the guards near him. With a dagger already in hand he threw it at the first guard, and smirked as the dagger split into two, the second going towards the man’s comrade. Such tricks were one of the little perks of magic.
Uruelleth allows himself a tight grin when he sees that his attack on Goldshackle left her so loopy that she hit herself. He keeps up his attacks, hoping to drive through her and step in to defend Kilarra.
Alayna turns her attention to the guards attacking Jaxira. Her fingers weave in a pattern as sparks fly off of her, intensifying the electrical charge in the air between the two guards until a bright arc of lightning links them in a deadly circuit.
The electrical thunderstorm still threatens Gray.
Kilarra spits out a glob of blood, but presses on, fighting despite her wounds with a crazed look of confidence and recklessness.
-------
Achutla takes a swing on one of the guards and then retreats to avoid being surrounded.
Talia pulls down lightning bolts from the sky, making use of her Maximised Lightning Storm.
Kilarra spits out a glob of blood, but presses on, fighting despite her wounds with a crazed look of confidence and recklessness. She attacks hard and fast. With her final swing, she slashes Goldshackle across the throat. The slaver glares at Kilarra a final time before toppling over and lying still. Kilarra continues to bleed a bit.
Uruelleth allows himself a tight grin when he sees that his attack on Goldshackle left her so loopy that she hit herself. He keeps up his attacks, hoping to drive through her and step in to defend Kilarra. With Goldshackle down, he moves forward to help Kilarra. It takes two strikes, but the grey guard falls from Uruelleth’s savagery.
Alayna turns her attention to the guards attacking Jaxira. Her fingers weave in a pattern as sparks fly off of her, intensifying the electrical charge in the air between the two guards until a bright arc of lightning links them in a deadly circuit. Red avoids some of the damage, but blue takes all of it.
Talia pulls down lightning bolts from the sky, making use of her Maximised Lightning Storm. It takes two bolts, but Talia brings down the blue guard.
Bharaz, with the slaver no longer appearing to be a direct threat, Bharaz turned his attention towards the guards near him. With a dagger already in hand he threw it at the first guard, and smirked as the dagger split into two, the second going towards the man’s comrade. Such tricks were one of the little perks of magic. He injures the red guard with his dagger, but it just bounces off the already dead blue guard.
Jaxira shakes as she looks at her own blood, then at the red guard still standing next to her. She backs away as carefully as she can.
Achutla takes a swing on one of the guards and then retreats to avoid being surrounded. He lands a strong hit and demoralizes his foe in the process.
Ruthilda Goldshackle is dead.
Tukh looks up as he sees his former master’s body hit the ground. He glances over at her Kilarra, then back at her. Then he returns to cowering.
Red Guard advances on Alayna, apparently still unaware of his employer’s demise. He studies her, then swings at her once. His blade scrapes across her arm.
Blue Guard is dead.
Orange Guard stares over at where Ruthilda fell. He’s silent for a moment before beginning to scream, “Goldshackle’s dead! She’s gone! Goldshackle is gone! They killed her!”
Then he begins running for the estate’s exit along with the would-be buyers who haven’t managed to get out yet.
The remaining other guards follow suit, running for the exit.
Talia is tempted to lightning blast more of the guards but she felt that time was short, and the Blood Watch would soon be on the way. Instead, she starts to use Heaven's Leap to pull as many slaves out of the pit as she can.
"If someone can patch Kilarra up, or help me get these slaves out of here, that would be useful. We really need to get out of this place, now that we just sent up a gigantic "We are here" sign." she remarks quickly.
Achutla walks over to Kilarra and gives her a healing spell.
"Here, let me help," he says.
"Ah!" Alayna exclaims as she's wounded. She backs away, then lets the fleeing guards run by her. Once the last of the guards and patrons are past her, she brings up a fog cloud to cover the exit.
"There," she says as she stands at the edge of the cloud. "I'll let you know if someone's coming."
Ruel allows the guards to run and releases his battle fury. Still panting with the exertion of battle, he looks around for a ladder or rope to throw down to the slaves.
While he does that, he looks over to the gnoll ex-slave. "You there! Where did Goldshackle keep her valuables?" He first tries asking in Dwarven, and then Taldane if Tukh didn't seem to understand him.
Kilarra gives Achutla a nod of thanks as she pulls out a potion and chugs that down, too.
Then she helps Ruel loot Golshackle.
With the immediate danger over, Bharaz muttered a prayer to Magrim and stood watch, looking to see if any of the guards decided to come back with reinforcements.
After he heals Kilarra, Achutla moves to the pit and begins hoisting slaves out as quickly as he can.
Seeing Talia working hard, Bharaz abandoned his vigil and went over to help.