Sharna yells inaudible at the lizardfolk in the rear, causing it to stumble and cover its earholes in pain. Zaquielle follows this up with an arrow into its chest, again. This final arrow is enough to finally drop the beast!
Rodrigo attacks the remaining warrior, but his sword bounces harmlessly off the creature's thick hide.
Facing the only woman he can see who has caused so much pain and devastation to his tribe, he hisses angrily and attacks, "kii tira wux sseth'lkk svent!? Jaci jahus ergriff jiil keari de pok tawurair!"
With a mighty blow, he swings at Lady Natalia!
But his swing is blocked by the low ceiling! Oh, my!
Group 1
Natalia [29/43 HP]
Shandor
Rodrigo
Zaquielle
Sharna
Critters
Lizardfolk Warrior 1 [11/56 HP]
Group 2
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Zaquielle runs forward to the lizardman that dropped under her arrows, where she drops on one knee and touches the creature infusing her holy power into it, stopping it from bleeding out anymore.
You were exposed to a potent source of positive energy as a child, perhaps by being born under the right cosmic sign, or maybe because one of your parents was a gifted healer. As a standard action, you may automatically stabilize a dying creature merely by touching it.
Zaquielle moves further into the room to the dying lizardman. Lady Natalia strikes true and causes a vicious wound as Rodrigo steps in behind the remaining warrior, flapping his cloak about. The warrior, confused by the flapping cloak, doesn't see the fatal blow, dropping him to the ground.
Everyone looks at the mess at Rodrigo's feet.
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With the combat over, Lady Natalia takes a deep breath, and says "Shandor, we tried our best. Unfortunately, they were not in the mood to talk."
'So, perhaps not my best attempt at diplomacy, would have helped if they spoke a civilized language. Let's just try and keep the Beast on our side. He has proven to be effective. So, let's see how he does when I turn on the ol' Landros charm!'
She gives the sorcerer her best smile, which is only partially marred by the lizardfolk's gore splattered all over her. She gives a slight bow, saying, "Oh, kind sir, would you mind giving a lady a hand? I appear to have the poor chaps entrails sprayed all over me... our friend Rodrigo was quite zealous in his attacks on the fellow." She seems to be ignoring the swath of blood her last strike sprayed all over the Varisian.
With the rush of battle having worn off, Natalia remembers the mighty club strike she took. 'Lucky I took that strike square in the cuirass, the heaviest part of the armor. I shudder to think of what would have happened had he struck me in the head... I am sure my ears would still be ringing! If only I had my brother's ability to Lay on Hands... I am sure it would come in very handy.'
She pulls out her Wand of Cure Light Wounds, and starts healing herself.
"Friends, perhaps before we move on, we should take a moment to cast our enhancement spells. I believe I shall once more give myself the strength of a bull and request the use Aroden's shield."
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Sharna pinches the bridge of her nose as she walks forward. She holds up her robes as she steps over the bodies of the very dead lizardfolk.
"I must agree that this was not quite the diplomatic approach I thought we had agreed on," the Thuvian woman sighs. "And it becomes harder to parlay with leaders when you have slain their men, you know. For some reason, they tend to be upset by things like that.
"And of course they attacked. We wandered into their territory as intruders who did not speak their tongue. They defended their home. It is the natural response of both beasts and men, let alone guards. I do wish we might have taken a defensive posture and tried further negotiation before we destroyed them."
Her opinion offered, Sharna crouches by the dead lizards and turns the corpses to lie on their backs. She closes their eyes and tries to arrange their limbs in a less... violent position.
"There is nothing for it now, though. Going forward, might I suggest we approach with gifts in hand?-- Ra, stop that, you are not to eat their eyes. No, stop that right now. Come here. Thank you."
Further in the caves, there appear to be numerous ways to go. Small flows of river dump into a tiny pool at the hall's exit into the deeper parts of the tunnels.
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Natalia considers things a moment, and checks the two lizard folk. Any gear, or signs of life?
Once that is done, she will cast her two buffs, and say, "let's get moving! folks!"
Natalia will (after her buffing) move up into the room, sloshing through the water, as long as it isn't too deep. She will go to a point where she can see both ways.
To the left, Natalia spies empty bunks, but is unable to see into the entire room from her current position. Surely there has to be someone sleeping in there that needs a good diplomacy check!
To the right, she sees a half a dozen lizardfolk hard at work moving crates and barrels. It looks like there's already a group of men in there setting up a good repertoire for diplomacy with them already, however. It doesn't look like any have noticed the sounds of combat diplomacy from the other room over the grunting, hissing, and scraping of crates and barrels of the working lizardfolk in here.
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Natalia puts away her weapon again, and decides that it is time to wait for her companions to move up with her. She will move, slightly, to get a better view into the bunkroom, however.
'I am surprised that no one memorized Comprehend Languages after they have had so much difficulty communicating in battle! I wonder, though... they don't understand Taldane, but perhaps they understand Azlanti? They have probably been here for a while.'
The men turn at Rodrigo's advance, swearing under their breath, and bring their rapiers to ready positions. It is difficult to determine what brought their attention to his advance. It could've been anything. The twirl of the red cape, the soft patter of a stone kicked over the muddy ground, his shout of assurance for Lady Natalia's safety. Anything.
Group 1
Shandor
Rodrigo
Sharna
Zaquielle
Critters
Men
Group 2
Natalia
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Sharna trails along at the rear of the group, her brow furrowed in thought as she considers how best to approach the lizardfolk. Although, as they pick their way along, she does take out a scroll of comprehend languages and reads it. There. It is limited in its usefulness-- she will not be able to speak to the lizard-men-- but at least she can understand them. As well as Lady Landros...
Realizing the group has gone ahead of her while she read from her scroll, Sharna hurries to catch up. She is accordingly not stealthy.
"Leave one of the men alive! Surely they must speak the Draconic tongue, to command the lizardmen," she calls to her colleagues. Ra shrieks his approval of this plan.
Shandor, yet again, yells at the enemy in a voice only his target can hear.
Zaquielle waits to see how Rodrigo's "words" play out as he charges forward with his dueling sword, skewering the man. Surely these gentlefolk will realize the benefits of diplomacy!? The lizardfolk, meanwhile, cower in the corners, dropping the crates and boxes that they were carrying. Easy pickings for diplomatic words.
Group 1
Shandor
Sharna
Zaquielle
Critters
Men
Group 2
Natalia
Rodrigo
Shandor moves to the side and fires off a frosty ray from his fingers, striking the man squarely.
Group 1
Sharna
Zaquielle
Critters
Man [28/36 HP]
Group 2
Natalia
Rodrigo
Shandor
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Seeing there was no reason to call her curse down on the man, Sharna walks forward into the cave with her hands empty and raised at her sides in what she hopes is a universal gesture of placation.
She stops just out of reach of the nearest cowering lizard-man, and tries to indicate by means of her non-hostile body language-- an empty, outstretched hand, as well as interposing herself between the the others of her group and the lizard-folk-- that she does not wish to fight them.
Sharna steps in and starts waving at the cowering lizardfolk. Zaquielle is interested in watching to see how events unfold, both hands on her bow as she gently leans on it.
The frosty man steps around Sharna and readies an attack on Rodrigo. Another man steps out from the back room's shadows and moves at Rodrigo, rapier and short sword weaving a dangerous dance. When he's in position, they both attack the man waving his cape around.
The first man cannot find an opening in Rodrigo's weaving, but the second man aims just to the side of the cape and is able to hit Rodrigo in the lower back.
Group 1
Shandor
Sharna
Zaquielle
Natalia [40/43 HP]
Rodrigo [34/46 HP]
Critters
Goon 2 [28/36 HP]
Goon 3
Group 2
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Sharna eyes the man slipping past her, while Ra shrieks his disdain from her shoulder, but she makes no move to stop him since... yeah.
Instead, the robed woman takes a short step to the south and reaches into her magical pack to retrieve some food-- flat waybread, dried meat and berries-- and tries to get the attention of the lizardfolk she is adjacent to and offer it to him.
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said Rodrigo to Lady Natalia with a smile
Then he turn to the one in front of him and put his cape right, then left while his sword took another route to strike his opponent.
Lady Natalia keeps shouting in a language not many understand, and yells specifically at the one behind Rodrigo, who seems to not care too much. Sharna offers the cowering lizardfolk more berries and dried meat, but they still seem petrified of the events unfolding around them to pay her much attention, much less the yelling in the background drawing any attention to her pantomiming away.
Shandor fires off another volley of force energy streaking into the two enemy combatants, injuring them and knocking the one behind Rodrigo to his feet.
Rodrigo swings at the still standing man, but is unable to land a blow against him. He does, however, find that the wound he suffered earlier continues to bleed, causing quite a deal of discomfort and pain. Zaquielle fires a shot at the same man, but the shot goes wide and strikes the stonewall in the back of the room.
The third man stands , and then lunges at Rodrigo with his rapier. The second man then attacks Rodrigo with both his rapier and dagger, then steps off towards Shandor.
Group 1
Shandor
Sharna
Zaquielle
Natalia [40/43 HP]
Rodrigo [15/46 HP]
Critters
Goon 2 [22/36 HP]
Goon 3 [30/36 HP]
Group 2
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Sharna sees that her pantomime attempts are clearly having no effect. Irritably, she turns from the cowering lizard to look over the battle at hand.
"Ra-- noble and chivalrous Rodrigo is injured, it seems," she says, while her fingers chart quick symbols in the air.
The hawk shrieks and flaps off her shoulder to land on Rodrigo's. Healing energy flows from the hawk to the dashing warrior.
Sharna than reaches into her pack to get out a scroll of healing as well, in case more is needed.
Lady Natalia slices at the foe facing off against Shandor, dealing a wicked blow. Shandor steps back and fires off another volley of energy at his enemies, but none of them are tripped this time.
Zaquielle manages to drop the closer of the two men, missing with her first arrow, but striking true with the second. Sharna sends Ra into the fray to heal the injured Rodrigo, who looked ready to keel over soon.
Group 1
Rodrigo [24/46 HP]
Critters
Goon 3 [24/36 HP]
Group 2
Shandor
Sharna
Zaquielle
Natalia [40/43 HP]
The man crumples to the floor as you both slice into his tender fleshy parts. The lizardfolk continue to huddle together on the floor, darting quick glances at you and hissing in a strange tongue amongst themselves.
One lizardfolk, dressed in nothing more than rags, stands slowly from the middle of the group, but continues to avoid your gaze by keeping his down, and asks timidly, "Are we to be next, then?"
Dagger (3)
Longbow with 20 arrows (3)
Rapier (3)
Nothing magical
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"Ah. Good. One who speaks Taldane," Sharna sighs in relief. She steps forward toward the speaker, hands still raised and weaponless.
"Our quarrel is not with you. These men are our enemies-- and if we understand things correctly, you and your tribe bear them no love, either. We do not wish to fight any more of your people-- already these men, our enemies, have caused enough battle between us and your people.
"Are any of you injured? I am a healer."