Damn… she’s me best student. Now ain’t the time to dwell of the betrayal. VV sets her sights on the big guy!
“Jocelyn told ye I use non-lethal blows, right?”
Even if a man about to turn VV to paste deserves no mercy, she fights better when she takes ’em alive.
Wow… losing Init will result in missing twice!
Ahto's bolt glances off Demelza Stroud's preternaturally tough skin. However, as he draws burden, he feels the boon of Pelipe's magic coursing through his muscles.
You hear the harsh words of a dark prayer coming from the trees behind you as one of the Stroud's changeling daughters casts a fell divine spell. A dagger of black energy appears just behind Ahto and the Vixen. It lunges for the Abadaran, but it glances harmlessly off his armor.
As he rises, the giant Brother Grunt hefts a large rock that he hurls at his foes. A simple-minded brute, he merely aims for the target straight in front of him - thus Pelipe finds herself the unfortunate recipient of the stony delivery.
|
From out of nowhere (or at least where Wonky once was), a voice of reassurance echoes out to the allied Tamlynites.
"I'll handle the ones behind us. Concentrate on the coven and that giant thing."
The invisible Wonky then draws forth her lorestone and activates the latent enchantment within Sprocket.
Wonky readily recognizes that Brother Grunt is a marsh giant.
"With pleasure!" Katrine chants another spell, the second of her two for the day. Her treasured composite bow shimmers green for a moment. Against hags and what appears to be some kind of giant, she's going to need the boost.
The hag sisters begin chanting a spell - one that sounds like a discordant song - combining their powers together.
The Vixen decides that, with the huge strength boost, Ahto is the better opponent for the giant. She decides to topple a hag in the hope of distracting her just as she’s about to complete the big spell!
Storm races toward the giant, fangs bared, and bites at his leg!
Ahto makes contact with Burden, but the giant's tough, rubbery hide slows the magic blade and keeps it from sinking into his leg.
Her acrobatics carries her atop the ravine, and the Vixen's kick strikes the eldest Stroud sister in the back. However, whilst she was able to split the stake in twain, this feels more akin to kicking at stone.
Storm rushes bravely forward and sinks teeth into the giant's flabby hide.
Pelipe recognizes that the hag sisters are preparing to cast an enchantment spell - one designed to charm the target over to their side.
Round 1
Pelipe finds that the sun has been blotted out by something, then her world goes dark. Pain surges through her body as the rock crushes her and rolls onward. She doesn't even realize that there is a painful scream coming from her lips until she takes a breath.
"That almost tore my arm off..."
Weakly, she raises her spellbook and tucks it close to her. She can hear the Strouds casting and focuses her blurry vision upon them. If she can disrupt them, they will not be able to succeed, but then she will most certainly be a target. She can't discern their target either, so she can only guess it is going to be Lord Ahto.
If she were twisted in the mind, she would love to see him kill his friends mercilessly by their overwhelming force through their hag bond. Pelipe opens her spellbook and casts a protection over him from its very pages, removing it permanently from her capabilities. She then moves forward and touches him from behind and a field of energy covers him, protecting him from chaos and mental domination from such sources.
"Prepare your mind, they are casting a spell to charm one of us!"
“Prepare me mi—?” How???
Think happy thoughts, think happy…
Pelipe and Katrine are protected by anonymity. They joined the party after Ahto and company left Tamlyn, thus the pair were never part of the coven's secret observations. This is especially fateful for Katrine, for if they knew she was a changeling, they would most assuredly single her out for their spell.
Ahto would normally be their prime target, as the Strouds would relish controlling the lord of Tamlyn and making him betray the rule of law by turning against his allies. Unfortunately for the hags, Pelipe quickly slips a protective spell upon his mind before they can finish their incantation.
Thus it goes that the Stroud Sisters make the Vermilion Vixen the focus of their coven magic.
Pelipe breathes a sigh of relief at the fact Ahto is protected. Now, she likely is a target. The mage now steps safely out of the reach of the lumbering giant and fades from sight.
"Katrine, keep trying to disrupt their spells by hitting the sisters!"
Pelipe attempts to move silently and disturb nothing so they are unsure where she is moving to. She also stays low to the ground in case Katrine shoots her bow in Pelipe's direction.
Pelipe vanishes from the enemies' view, and they neither see nor hear her movements.
Ahto reels back and delivers a sword stroke in the giant's leg opposite Storm, as though man and hound were aiming to fell the brute like a tree.
Louhi, the elder daughter of the Strouds, directs her magical floating dagger to lunge for Althea, but it bounces off the armor hidden beneath her trail-soiled finery.
"I suppose simply observing was never an option," she sighs with resignation, now ready to join the fray.
Louhi then casts a spell aimed at Pelipe, calling down a field of magical silence to quell the party's own spellcasting.
Brother Grunt reaches over and picks up his hooked gaff and delivers a wide swing at Ahto.
Katrine shrugs off the effects of Louhi's spell, aiming an arrow at Demelza and firing. This is what she's practiced for, for so many years. But the fierce joy in facing her enemies is tempered with worry for her comrades. Somebody got charmed, and it wasn't Katrine or the invisible Wonky. Pelipe cast some sort of spell on Ahto, so it probably wasn't him, and she just told Katrine to keep shooting the hags so it probably isn't her. It's most likely Vixen or Althea they have to watch out for now. "Vixen, you all right up there? Althea, you haven't been charmed, have you?"
|
|
The invisible gnome pads over to Doo-dad, then touches the dog lightly on his raised haunches.
"Thoir ionnsaigh air a ’bhoireannach coigreach singilte. Thoir dhan talamh i."
The two dogs take off, Sprocket circling around Louhi while Doo-dad charges right in. The enhanced Sprocket times his attack to take advantage of the flank.
Althea takes a step away from the magic dagger taking swipes at her. She also pauses to nod in approval as Katrine's arrow plunges into the back of the eldest Stroud and the pair of dogs begin savaging their changeling daughter.
Althea raises her arms and chants her own spell, working to call a squad of beasts to attack the hags. Red circles of runes appear around the Strouds as the hounds begin to take shape.
"Why don't you go wait over there, dear. Your aunties have work to do," Mairghread instructs the Vixen, pointing towards the empty eastern half of the clearing.
Meanwhile, the Stroud sisters begin chanting a new spell.
The Vixen calmly descends the cliffside, walks eastward and—
—volleys herself onto the west-facing ledge. She crosses her legs, sits back, and waits for the show to be over.
Pelipe begins to watch the hags strain to hear her, but they cannot. Then a zone of silence descends upon her making it even easier to sneak. It certainly seemed like that little witch tried to hit her with it.
Everything goes silent and she can see the Vixen leave the battle. "Vixen...get off your hind! That spell won't keep you from helping us! Did they ask you to do something you wanted to do or did they force you to sit down? I would have thought if they were going to try to force you, they would have made you fight Ahto?" Pelipe seems perplexed by this. Whatever the Strouds said, she must have taken it in the friendliest of ways.
Storm circles around to the giant's side, biting at his enormous calf.
Meanwhile, it's pretty obvious to Katrine who got hit by the coven's spell. "Vixen! Snap out of it! They're trying to kill us! We need your help!"
Storm's teeth fail to pierce the giant's flabby hide this time.
From the gestures and the components the hags pull from their filthy bags and sacks, Pelipe recognizes that they are casting some manner of necromantic spell. The wickedness they work soon becomes evident, however.
They bend down and touch the elk carcass nearly buried among the wicker fetishes and macabre offal at their feet. The creature rises again, the flesh sloughing from its bones.
With unholy grace, the undead forest creature leaps down the ravine and lands behind Storm. It attempts to gore the hound with its sharpened antlers, but Storm manages to lose only a tuft of fur.
Ahto continues to hack away at the giant's legs, cleaving away adipose to get at the sinew and bone beneath.
The Vixen watches the elk rise. “Well, ye healed it… but it’s still a sorry looking fella.”
Round 3
Pelipe considers what she's about to do. She is not the strongest, but with Ahto in a zone of silence, she cannot enlarge him or give him any boons. Something has to be done with the Strouds. She will be putting her life on the line. "This may be my end...Oh mom...I will miss you...," she thinks to herself as she moves out from her hiding spot and rushes to the right of the Strouds. Now she is out of the zone of silence.
While still invisible, she has to give up her position for the sake of her friends.
"I know their words are sounding so good right now Vixen, and I know they are seen in your eyes as your friends right now, but that big ugly guy isn't! Get off your butt and help us! What the heck! We're your friends too. Do something! This is so unlike you!"
Now they know generally where she is behind her tree or bush along the path she ran. Not exactly, but if that didn't give it away, now she casts a spell with audible components. Now they can pinpoint where she is, even if they can't see her.
Speed: 20ft, Climb 30ft
Stats: +4 Dex spell+Powerfulchange, +2NA book boon, +1 Size AC, +1 attack
Saves: +2 Reflex
Attacks: Bite, 2 Claws, Tail
Louhi Stroud channels destructive force into her dagger and aims a fell swing at the enhanced Sprocket, but the mighty good boy evades the attempted smite.
With a hoarse howl, Brother Grunt rears back and slams both his thick fists down upon Ahto, leaving the Abadaran lord seeing stars.
|
|
Moving north slowly and with care, the invisible gnome murmurs a spell and transforms three coins into magical ammunition. She considers the witches from her remote post, trying to determine what she might know of them.
Meanwhile her miniature pack of dogs harry the daughter of the coven. Preternaturally sly in combat, Sprocket delays his vicious attempt at tripping Louhi until after Doo-dad bites at her.
"Ahto!" He's still standing, but barely. Unfortunately Katrine has no healing spells prepared and only one potion. Hopefully the Lord of Tamlyn can heal himself. "Dammit Vixen, don't you care whether he lives or dies? Get in there and save Ahto's life!"
Right now Katrine has to focus on the hags. The ranger aims at Demelza again, but holds her fire. This time she's going to wait until they start casting.
The changeling makes a futile thrust with her dagger before finding her footing ripped away right from under her by the ferocious Sprocket, sending her sprawling upon her back.
"It looks like you could use some help, my lord" Althea calls to Ahto sardonically, her voice piercing the magical silence.
Coils of red magical energy unspool from around her arms, focusing within her palms. She unleashes a pair of scorching rays aimed at the giant, leaving terrible blackened wounds upon the tall brute.
Her summoned hounds are less effective, their teeth finding no purchase against the hag's legs.
The Strouds set upon casting their third spell. One of the summoned dogs nips at Elspeth, but she maintains her concentration.
"What are you doing now? Is this going to disrupt my plans?"
The Vixen is deaf to every call to action.
But somewhere in the back of her mind, the Child hears. Save lives! she screams at the Vixen, What part o’ that don’t ye get?!
The minute the hags start casting again, Katrine fires at Demelza. She sighs in relief as the Vixen finally bursts into action, attacking the undead elk.
Meanwhile, Storm tries to bite the giant again.
With the Child at least in partial control, the Vixen steers herself towards the undead called into being by the hags. Their magic does not skew her perception enough for her to see such a creature as a friend. Thus, she delivers a mighty roundhouse kick after landing that shatters the skeletal elk into a shower of shards.
Katrine's training comes to fruition, and her magically enhanced arrow skewers the eldest Stroud Sister through the chest, grazing the hag's blackened heart. This terrible wound robs the hag of her concentration, and the coven's latest spell dissipates into an impotent cloud of smoke.
Meanwhile, Storm's latest bite leaves the giant struggling to stand as terrible wounds continue to coat his thick legs with blood.
Pelipe now casts a spell to boost her own strength. Out of her mouth comes strange guttural clicks and mutterings down by the bushes, then the spell comes into fruition. No normal transmutation expert could do such a thing--only druids and their kind with their natural spellcasting ability in polymorphed forms. Now that she has cast before moving up to the hilltop, they will think she is down below still. The hill is no feat for her. She possesses now the claws and climbing ability of the small, invisible, troll-like being.
Speed: 20ft, Climb 30ft
Stats: +4 Dex (spell+Powerfulchange), +2NA (book boon), +1 Size AC, +1 attack, +6 Str (spell+Powerfulchange)
Saves: +2 Reflex
Attacks: Bite, 2 Claws, Tail +3 damage/hit
Skills: +4 Stealth
With one last swing from Burden, Lord Ahto brings Brother Grunt falling to his broad knees - before the flabby giant slumps over, dying.
Louhi Stroud, overwhelmed by the dogs attacking her, takes a step back and pulls out some manner of divine symbol on a ratty cord. She holds it up and invokes a fell prayer to her dark deity.
Katrine grins viciously as her arrow strikes home and Ahto cuts the giant down. "Nice hit, Ahto!" She whistles sharply to get Storm's attention, and once she has it, points at Mairghread. "Good boy. Storm, attack!" Wolfdog thus sorted out, Katrine aims an arrow at Demelza. Just try casting another spell. I dare you.
Althea briefly looks over her shoulder with a sneer as Wonky's dogs violently shake the downed, unconscious Louhi Stroud.
"Do you have this in hand at last, or do you need more assistance from your prisoner?" Althea asks, her proud tone contrasting with the battle around her.