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Garduk sticks with Vasily as he creeps closer to the towers, and loads his own crossbow.
"Not much else for me to do from this distance," he murmurs. "But if you decide to fight your way in, tell me first. I can make it so they won't be able to see you for a few seconds - enough time for you to run over and take one of them by surprise. Once you attack, though, the spell will end."
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Vasily and Garduk move up in unison, while prepping their respective crossbow. Harry and Ischell do the same, but with much greater stealth, creeping from bush to rocks to stay under cover. Brayne elects to remain in place, waiting to see how the situation develops.
The loud yelp of pain from the dog from Kulga's arrow has alerted the inhabitants of the towers. The man dressed in red standing at the top of the bridge yells down commands. "We are under attack! They must know about the book! Those incompetents must have failed to do away with the pest of a bookworm. Brandon, release the dogs! Gar, hold your position for now! The rest of you, fire! Focus on that fool in robes! He must be a spellcaster!" Despite this command, he instead retreats from the bridge, disappearing from view into the tower.
The blue-garbed man in the central tower runs out, and unties the dogs from the pole. The three canines, frothing from their jaws, race off almost immediately towards Garduk and Vasily . Meanwhile, a hail of bolts fly straight towards the pair. However, the distance affects their aim, and the ammunitions come nowhere near striking their target.
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Round 2
Seeing the dogs sprint ahead, Vasily takes aim at the one nearest (pink if all are equal) and fires his crossbow. Now that the curs are much closer, he feels the penetrating power of his crank bow will have more effect. The rogue gauges the distance run and drops his crossbow, taking out his rapier for close in fighting as the dogs get closer.
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Kulga eyes the nearing dogs and fires another arrow at the centre one. The arrow punches right through its shoulder and drops the canine. Vasily also launches a crossbow bolt which pierces deep into the canine on the left, before switching weapons. Garduk attempts the same but his shot goes wide.
The two remaining dogs continue charging forward, disregarding their fallen companion. As soon as they reach within his range, Ischell steps out from cover and flings his kama at the injured one, cutting it down. As the remaining one continues moving forward, he flings the other end, neatly decapitating it.
"They's killed the dogs!" the thug who had just released them yelled out. He runs back into the cover of the central tower, and together with the other three, continue firing at Garduk as they were last commanded. Clearly, they are not well trained with their crossbows as all their shots continue to fall short.
Nessian's voice calls out from the top of the tower, "Greel, come over and support the rest!" Another figure emerges from the structure furthest away. Nessian, however, remains unseen.
... with a pop of displaced air and the fresh, cool scent of mountain air just above the tree line, a celestial eagle appears in the air about 15 above Garduk and 15 feet closer to the towers. She opens her beak and screeches her predator's cry, then speeds towards the party's foes.
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They know we are here now
Ischell stands defiantly in view of the tower. Taking a moment to consider the blood on the sides of his blades, he stoops and wipes the blood off the weapons.
"Well dudes, I think the gig is up- let's just end this thing."
With stealth no longer a concern, the human makes steady progress towards the "tower".
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Kulga fires at the exposed thug, but the distance is too great and the arrow bounces off the walls of the tower beside him. Garduk calls forth Celeste into existence who dives towards to the same figure. The remaining Pathfinders hustles towards the towers, Vasily and Ischell in the open, while Brayne and Harry does so from cover.
The exposed thug raises his crossbow and fires into Celeste. The bolt is well-placed and punches right through, sending her back into whichever dimension Garduk called out her from. He then runs into the nearest tower to join his orange-garbed companion. The remaining thugs shift their fire to the nearest foe, Ischell, but he deftly hops out of the way of the 4 bolts. However, Nessian finally steps back into view and launches an arrow which slices the paladin across his shoulder. Strangely, his form appears somewhat shimmering as compared to before.
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The paladin ignores the wound he just took, and continues to move towards the tower. He focuses his personality towards Nessian- reaching out across the distance to form a mystical connection to the foe.
"Not cool man! Not cool at all. I will see your evil plans destroyed!"
AC: 20 (Deflection, +2 Charisma)
To hit: +2 (Cha)
To damage: +2 (Level)
Bypasses all DR
As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Cha bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.
In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.
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Garduk winces as the green-garbed crossbowman's bolt sends the eagle back to Nirvana. When Nessian appears, he tries to identify the magic that surrounds the gang leader.
Once he realizes that he has fallen behind, he runs to catch up to Harry, Brayne, and Vasily (staying closer to Vasily if Harry and Brayne are somehow still maintaining stealth) and looking to end his movement behind whatever brush might provide some cover.
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With most of their cover blown, the Pathfinders enmasse push forward towards the tower. Brayne and Harry still move with care to keep out of sight as much as possible, while the rest are largely exposed.
All the thugs train their crossbow on Ischell who is leading the pack. Ischell, who is running straight towards the tower, makes for an easy target and two bolts slam into his stomach and chest, almost knocking him off his feet. Before he has the chance to recover, Nessian lets loose another arrow from overhead slicing across his left shoulder, leaving Ischell weak from the multiple wounds.
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The bolts jolt Ischell, but he continues his forward momentum toward the tower.
No other choice now. At least everyone else is still unscathed
His hands glow a sudden white light, and he places his hand across his chest- letting the light wash over his body.
Looking for cover as he runs- attempting to find something to dive behind.
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Garduk breathes a sigh of relief as the big man staggers ahead and gets behind some bushes. He tries to do the same, pulling out a wand as he moves 20' closer to the tower.
As soon as he finds more cover, he stops and points the wand at Nessian.
Maybe we can drive them back inside long enough for us to make it to the doors.
"Telum magicum!"
Once more, two ice-blue darts appear in the air and speed towards their target.
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Realising how badly wounded Ischell is, Brayne comes out into the light moving a little bit hastily in attempt to turn the tables! As he moves forward, his eyes turn a deep black and in a very monstrous deep voice he speaks loudly towards Nessian pointing his finger towards the man,"Nessian! Come!"
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With blood flowing copiously down his front, Ischell stumbles forward within reach of the tower, bringing himself out of the firing arc of most of the thugs and from Nessian directly above. He nonetheless dives into the ground to take cover, and quickly heals himself of some of the bad wounds.
Garduk dashes to behind a skeleton of a bush, whips out a wand and sends two bolts smashing into Nessian. The human grunts in pain and glares at the half-orc. Vasily fires on the thugs to pin them door but the bolt smashes into the tower wall instead. That, however, provided enough distraction for Brayne, who seeing how badly injured Ischell is, rushes forward and manages to avoid being spotted. Harry similarly makes use of the distraction to move forward from cover to cover under stealth. Kulga continues taking the direct approach, continuing her straight on charge.
"They're closing in! Defend the tower!" Nessian yells at his War Hounders. He disappears from view briefly, then Kulga sees him coming down the circular flight of stairs at the back of the tower. From that awkward angle, he attempts to shoot at her, but the arrow glances off the door frame and misses her.
The two thugs , pushed on by their leader, drops their crossbows and closers in on the prone Ischell. They tear into him with their gauntlets shaped like a dog's claws. Ischell manage to roll away from one but the other tears deep gashes across his stomach.
The three thugs in the adjacent targets find Ischell and Kulga no longer within their view and shift to fire on Garduk again. One lands a lucky shot with his bolt punching through the half-orc's magical protection to pierce through his thigh.
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“Gah!!!” Garduk yowls as the bolt drills bores a long gash across his thigh.
He pops the wand of infernal healing out of its spring-loaded wrist sheath and taps himself with it, muttering "Shërimi nga djajtë" to activate the spell.
Glowering at the thug who shot him, the arcanist moves forward another 20', once again seeking out whatever cover he can find, and drawing his wand of mage armor jamming the wand of infernal healing into his belt as he moves.
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As the two thugs approach Ischell, he flings out his kamas in quick succession at each. Despite his awkward angle attacking from the floor, each time, the weapons slice deeply across the chest and stomach of the thugs respectively, taking both of them down before they come near him.
Garduk curses the crossbow strike. Drawing another wand, he heals himself while continuing to move forward. Harry and Kulga also closes in.
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A vision of Brayne moving forward and hopelessly attacking the thug flashes before his eyes, and as lady luck would have it, Ischell takes them out before the noble half-orc is able to react. "Hmm..."
Instead of tempting the fates, Brayne walks over the Ischell and provides him with some healing assistance.
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Seeing both of his enemies drop before him, Ischell stands up and brushes off his armor, taking a moment to dislodge one of the arrows from his breastplate. HIs hands glow with healing energy, just as Brayne's wand activates. As the glow subsides, all of his wounds have closed over.
The human then steps forward and to his left- repositioning himself near the doorway (over the dead body of Blue).
AC: 20 (Deflection, +2 Charisma)
To hit: +2 (Cha)
To damage: +2 (Level)
Bypasses all DR
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After taking out the two approaching thugs, Brayne lowers a hand on the injured and heals him of much of his injuries. The paladin quickly scrambles to his feet, moves to a more tactical position, and heals himself further, restoring himself to full health. Meanwhile, Vasily again attempts to fire his crossbow, but again, the stubborn weapon refuses to respond.
"All of you get here! Watch out for the monk with the flying blades. He took out Pruum and Boimnun just like that!" Nessian yells out in command. He lifts up his bow and fire at Ischell, but the arrow glances off the door frame. He then drops the weapon, whips out a flail and closes in, stepping just within his reach.
The remaining thugs rush out of their respective towers (missing Harry still hiding amongst the bushes). The green-garbed one fires onto Ischell, but his shot was hasty and the bolt plunges into the ground. The orange-shirt thug closes with Kulga and slashes his "dogclaw" gauntlet at her, but the attack fails to get through her armor. On the other side, the thug dressed in yellow shoots his crossbow at Ischell but he trips over the uneven ground and misses.
Harry suddenly rises from the bushes, raises his rifle and fires! A loud blast echoes through the air but Harry also hears the disheartening sound of the carriage jamming inside his musket. This causes the bullet to spin out of control, flying harmlessly into the sky.
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"Dude, you are about to have a very bad day."
The blades spin in Ischel's hands, the flash of metal spanning the space between him and Nessian- the final blow looking to knock him off balance and away from the combat.
AC: 20 (Deflection, +2 Charisma)
To hit: +2 (Cha)
To damage: +2 (Level)
Bypasses all DR
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Brayne lashes out at the thug next to him as he tries to shoot down Ischell.
Unable to make an impact, the half-orc calls forth the darkness within him and transforms into the mindless monster once more with tiny bat wisp surrounding him! With every muscle in his body, he continues to lash out against the thug. Even the bat wisp are controlled to harm the man.