I missed where you moved. Kill that corbie!
Melon gets two strong hits in on #12, winding the corby and leaving it in that condition where it ought to be dying or dead, but still keeps standing.
As Melon moves aside following her attacks, Corinna hurries back out of the gatehouse and sends a glob of acid spinning into #7's chest. Gilfroy scurries across the ground just after the acid zips by and reaches out to heal Melon. Malan then send an arrow straight into #12's throat. Amazingly, the corby is still standing.
There is still no sign of the strange man.
Next Up: Dire Corbies, Melon, Corinna, Gilfroy, Malan, Strange Man.
Tevyn repositions himself in a place where Melon won't be in his way and keeps up the attack.
Tevyn's arrow grazes #6 across the shoulder.
The dire corbies shift their positions slightly and continue their attacks.
-- miss
-- miss
-- miss
-- miss
-- miss
-- hit
-- miss
-- miss
Most of those attacks turn out to be quite ineffectual as Melon easily ducks and twists away from all but one of six claws that come at her . #12 tries to get Tevyn, but nearly trips on the first attack and that's just enough to throw off the second attack as well.
Next Up: Corinna, Gilfroy, Malan, Strange Man, Tevyn, Dire Corbies.
Melon waits specifically for the weakened corby to attack her, then strikes back with a vicious elbow that (hopefully) incapacitates the creature permanently.
Melon shifts her body slightly to begin encircling the birdmen, then attempts a brutal kick into the solar plexus.
Melon slams her elbow into #8's chest, smashing the its ribcage. For the briefest of moments, it continues to stand there, still attempting to breathe. But its lungs must have been punctured by the attack and it is unable to draw another breath. It staggers over and collapses.
Unfortunately, #6 dodges aside of her next attack.
Next Up: Gilfroy, Malan, Strange Man, Tevyn, Dire Corbies, Melon.
If Gilfroy takes a five foot step east, can he get all three corbies with a colour spray? It wouldn't be using one of the typical cone alignments.
If Gilfroy takes a five foot step east, can he get all three corbies with a colour spray? It wouldn't be using one of the typical cone alignments.
Right! That's what he'll do then, after Corinna. DC 18!
Corinna is loath to leave the relative safety of the gatehouse, especially as she's not sure the oni isn't able to pop up behind her and cut off their escape, but she sees an opening to hit the acid-burned corby once more. Creeping along with her back to the wall, she finds an open crease where she can fling another acid dart at the corby without any of her own allies getting in the way of it. Just as she is about to fling the summoned acid, however, she thinks she sees movement inside the gatehouse and jumps, startled. By the time she realizes it was just a gossamer strand of the squashed spider's web floating on the breeze, her attack has gone awry.
Malan targets #7 (or other one still standing) and steps to AJ33.
Shortbow: arcane pool (+1)
to hit damage
It's his last. Two oracle spells left though.
Corinna moves out of the gatehouse and attempts to get #7 with more acid, but is distracted and the attack goes awry. Gilfroy then moves over a short distance, leans to the side, and sends out a cone of swirling colours that washes over the corbies.
-- fail
-- fail
-- fail
A moment later, as the bright colours clear, you see that all three corbies have collapsed.
The strange man does not immediately reappear.
Melon is quick to take the opening in the corbies' defenses and delivers a lethal - if somewhat brutal - end to their lives. "Do you guys want to push on now? The guy in the store said the potion would last an hour - so I am good to go for a while longer. But I think we should be a bit cautious. We don't know how many more of these birdmen are there - or whatever else waits for us. Other than the strange man. An... oni? I think we can camp up at the shrine, if we keep watches we can intercept any raid that they might launch - but either way, we're not taking them by surprise now."
"You'd think if they had many more, they'd be here by now. We haven't exact been subtle."
"If there not many more, there will still not be many more tomorrow - and the odds are low that they'll be able to mount a raid. But there might be more that are setting up an ambush. Look at this place! It's huge!"
Tevyn moves forward to help with putting down the unconscious Corbies. Once he is done, he wipes the blade of his longsword clean before returning it to the scabbard.
"It seems likely that the strange man retreated rather than face us. I'd prefer to press on while we can. I'm still operating under the assumption that Ameiko's time is limited."
He looks to the rest of his companions. "Are there many injuries?"
"I'm a bit hurt," Gilfroy says. "I have two more divine spells, after which I'm reduced to my reusable spells and my prowess with my crossbow."
He holds up his crossbow to emphasize his point, pauses a moment, then turns it right way up.
"Mr. Malan is quite injured," Corinna points out again. "I can't contribute anything else, but there's no key to the front gate and no way to ensure they don't lock us out again if we leave and come back -- and this time, we won't catch the guards nodding. The more time we take, the more time we give the oni to prepare for us; he knows we'll be back. We ought at least to search the outbuildings for any clues or useful items," she concludes, referring to the stable from which the spider emerged and the unexamined tower. "If there were more hostile creatures in them, they would have come out to join the fray. The same for any open areas inside the castle."
"I don't mind then, if we push on," Melon looks up at the keep. "Maybe we're lucky and find a storage room with healing supplies." She eyes Gilfroy and Malan. "Both of you look like you need more than just a divine spell each." She looks squarely at Tevyn and Corinna, "If any of us becomes unable to fight, then we'll retreat, okay? Ameiko's life is at stake - but she wouldn't want to carry the burden of living at the cost of somebody else's."
Malan is agreeable to that plan.
"Ameiko's life is at stake - but she wouldn't want to carry the burden of living at the cost of somebody else's."
"Again, you mean?" Corinna mutters under her breath.
"Precisely because she knows that burden."
Tevyn curtly nods. "Then let's be about our business. The outbuildings first." He keeps his bow out and an arrow nocked in place and begins making his way to the stable the spider had come from.
You dispatch the unconscious corbies quickly and then move towards the stables that the spider came out of. Peering through the open doors you see an old building with sagging, grey walls. There is an old forge at the south end and several cobweb-filled, but otherwise empty horse stalls. You can't quite see the northeast end of the stables yet.
Just south of the stable entrance is another tower and another door into the gatehouse. From this vantage point, looking north across the courtyard, you can see the entrance to the building with the catapult on top is indeed in the west wall as you suspected.
"So far so good," Melon begins heading to the far-side of the stables.
Melon moves carefully into the stable towards the far end, followed cautiously by the rest of you. The far side of the stable contains another exit, but is otherwise unremarkable.
Melon is keen to use her hour of magical armor, and pushes on. "Should we use that main entrance where we were fighting, or try to go in from one level up, over there where the catapult is?"
Corinna trails behind the others and traces her fingers in front of her eyes to activate detect magio, on the lookout for any arcane auras in the area. Not only are the messy stables a likely place for something of value to have gotten lost, but she's still leery of the oni lingering under cover of invisibility.
"The main entrance," Corinna says firmly. "It's already open, and anything hostile in there would have come out to fight us with the other corbies. We start opening closed doors and we're likely to let out things that might not know we're here yet."
You make your way back out of the stable and across to the main building. Stepping over the multiple corby bodies, you enter the large room that is set up something like a throne room and take a quick, but cautious look around. Apart from the throne, carpet, and wall banners, there appears to be little else in here. However, there are several exits. There is a door along the long northwest wall . Across from that, a short hall branches off to the east. The hall ends in a pair of double doors . There is another door in the south wall of this hall . At the north end of the room, there are two more doors: one in the very north wall and another around the northeast corner . Finally, there is a flight of stairs heading up just around the northeast corner of the throne room .
"Any ideas?" Melon shrugs. "Maybe that way?" she points to the west.
The castle is a squat structure (only two storeys tall, with the exception of one tower that's about three storeys), but wide and intimidating. It is built of grey stone.
"Gotta start somewhere," Melon heads for the north-western door .
Tevyn follows a short distance back, his bow nocked and ready, keeping an eye wary toward places where a sniper might be looking to pick them off from above.
-- pass
Upon opening the door, the very fist thing that greets you is a horrible stench. Melon gets the brunt of it, but she's able to resist the nauseous filling that creeps up her stomach. You see a large table lies in shambles in the middle of this room, while crumbled suits of armour bearing decorations of dragons twisting around castle towers lie in heaps along the walls. A flight of stairs winds up along a curved wall to the north. Seated on the floor beside the wrecked table are two scaly lizard-like humanoids. The remains of some sort of meal lie on the floor between them.
"That was a noisy play he put you through this time," one of them hisses, looking up. "You're such bad actors. He sounded--" Seeing Melon at the door, its jaw drops in surprise, drool dripping over its sharp teeth. "Oh."
Order: Melon, Lizard Creatures, Tevyn, Corinna, Malan, Gilfroy.
Up First:
"Cayden's morning breath! That reeks! AGH! Quick! Drop'em!" Melon rushes into the room, leaping feet-first forward to skid with her bum over the table and use her legs in a scissor sweep to knock one of the stinking creatures to the floor.
Melon rushes into the room and leaps over the edge of the table, landing right beside the startled creatures.
Next Up: Corinna, Malan, Gilfroy, Melon, Lizard Creatures.
-- fail
Tevyn moves up to the door, his hands already reaching for an arrow . His nose is already wrinkling at the stench but as he comes into range of the full strength of it, he wretches. Despite the nausea rising in his stomach, he nocks an arrow and looses.
-- miss
Alas, the stench has just thrown off his aim too much and the arrow lands in the table, well short of his target.
Next Up: Malan, Gilfroy, Melon, Lizard Creatures, Tevyn.
Corinna hasn't the slightest interest in going into the smelly room or getting anywhere near the lizard things; she leaves the doorway open for Malan to have a clear shot and nervously watches the rest of the grand hallway, still waiting for the oni to turn up unexpectedly.
"They're troglodytes!" Tevyn gasps amid clenched teeth. "Watch out for the smell!"
Next Up: Gilfroy, Melon, Troglodytes, Tevyn, Corinna (subject to delayed action).
Malan moves into the room and steps to the side, keeping the wall at his back (X37)