Kain flies in trying to skewer the dangerous yellow mantis, only to find that the yellow enforcer next to the mantis has thrown himself onto his spear, deflecting the blow harmlessly into his own heart. The yellow enforcer slumps to the ground, dead, the holy damage appearing to not affect him.
The Chocobo's hit misses the yellow mantis as well, instead being absorbed by the red Enforcer, who takes the blow and lands on his ass because of it.
Gunari's Turn:
Don't be a 1:1d20 ⇒ 20
Gunari tries to stab purple, but blue keeps getting in the way, taking the damage from the first blow. While he tried, blue does not successfully block the second blow, which the purple enforcer takes handily, continuing to fight as if nothing happened, the critical hit obviously causing massive bleeding damage to his kidney.
The Red Enforcer ducks both breaths, getting his hair singed in the process but continuing to fight on. The Orange Enforcer is less lucky, taking the full blast from the first Hellhound. The yellow Mantis does a backflip, completely avoiding the first flaming blast. Watching the second he does a pirouette, again avoiding the entirety of the fire damage.
The enemies look furious at Raven's defense. They concentrate their efforts to try to find a weak point.
First the Red Enforcer and Orange Enforcer attempt to aid the Yellow Assassin. Only one succeeds and he quickly moves five feet out of the way. The Yellow enforcer stabs only once just barely finding purchase in Raven's soft skin with the help of his ally. As his blade cuts the skin, he twists and moves five feet northward. As he does so, a fine red mist begins to swirl around the Assassin's body. You see his wounds begin to heal.
The Orange Mantis speaks a word into the simple glove on his right hand. It transforms into a glowing disembodied hand that floats waiting an order. Without emotion, he simply says, "We will attack him." You watch as the glove begins assisting the Mantis with his single swing, which then misses horribly. You begin to watch the red mist swirl around his body as well.
The Red Mantis goes all out on Raven. You watch his flurry of blades, amazed that although one attack came very close, none landed successfully.
Good God, kill them so I don't have to make all these rolls!
Denbora and Raven are up
Mantis Ambush, Round 2:
=> Raven [0 AoOs Used]
X Green Enforcer [0 AoOs Used]
X Blue Enforcer [1 AoOs Used]
X Purple Enforcer [1 AoOs Used]
X Kain []
X Afficus []
X Gunari []
X Red Enforcer [0 AoOs Used]
X Orange Enforcer [0 AoOs Used]
X Beheader Yellow [Red Shroud 1, FH, AC, BS, H]
X Beheader Orange [Red Shroud 1, FH, AC, BS, H]
X Beheader Red [Red Shroud 2, FH, AC, BS, H]
=> Denbora []
"Denbora, little buddy, how 'bout casting the Blessing of Fervor we've talked about. I'd love to take these pricks down with my rapier, as well as the others. I'd bet Kain would love it, too!" Gunari says, glaring at the dancing enforcers that are in front of him.
Denbora hitches up his drawers shouting "May Torag make you all the anvil to my hammer!"
Denbora casts Prayer. All allies in a 40' burst from me have +1 luck bonus to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saves, and skill checks, while each of your foes takes a –1 penalty on such rolls.
Denbora then 5' steps in front of Purple Enforcer.
Gunari swears at the cowardice of the enforcers. "Get back here and fight like men, you cowards!" He moves forward, planning on limiting purple's ability to get protected. He thrusts Cayden's Churchkey at purple (maintaining the sacred weapon bonus), hoping to drop him quickly.
Gunari stabs at the Purple Enforcer. Unlike the attacks before, nobody comes to his aid. He thrusts through his liver, and the purple enforcer falls dead to the ground, clearly having joined Pharasma at the Boneyard.
Afficus orders his hellhounds to attack. Hellhounds 4 and 3 look at the dead body at their feet and change targets to the Green Enforcer. With nobody there to protect him, all four attacks land true. He too falls dead on the ground, singed and covered in bite marks.
Hellhound 2 tries to attack the Orange Enforcer, but both attacks fail horribly.
Hellhound 1's Turn:
Aid:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
Hellhound 1, seeing that his target is dead attacks changes targets to that of his ally and goes after the Orange Enforcer as well. The first attack is deflected into blue, who takes the brunt of the damage. The second attack is absorbed by Orange.
Kain's Turn:
Aid:1d20 + 8 - 4 ⇒ (11) + 8 - 4 = 15
The first attack is parried by the Red Enforcer, who rolls over onto his back to take the strike. it kills him on the spot. The second attack hits the Orange Enforcer, but does not kill him outright. The last critical strike is taken by the Orange Enforcer, who finds his entire body skewered by the lance, which now has a dead body attached, a growing weight in Kain's hands.
The Chocobo attacks the Blue Enforcer and kills him on the second blow as there are no further allies to aid him.
It is the Beheader's turns. I'll try to get to it later.
Mantis Ambush, Round 2:
Prayer is up, +1 to hit friend, -1 to hit foe
X Raven [0 AoOs Used]
X Kain []
X Afficus []
X Gunari []
=> Beheader Yellow [Red Shroud 1, FH, AC, BS, H]
=> Beheader Orange [Red Shroud 1, FH, AC, BS, H]
=> Beheader Red [Red Shroud 2, FH, AC, BS, H]
Denbora []
The Yellow Mantis' wounds heal slightly. He glares at Kain and five foot steps toward him. He stabs at the Chocobo once. Kain reels the bird back to avoid the blow. A second strike comes at the Chocobo. You hear the bird squeal in pain as the blade cuts in deep. As the blade digs into the Axbeak you watch the Mantis pivot to the side, moving effortlessly (without provoking) to a spot much closer to Gunari. His third and fourth attacks cut nothing but air.
The Orange Mantis moves in closer to the Hellhound. He stabs once cutting deep into the beast. He too pivots past the hellhound (without provoking) into a position closer to the Chocobo. He continues to strike wildly at the Hellhound. The second strike misses, but the third and fourth strike true. The Hellhound still stands.
Calling upon the aid of his glove, the Red Mantis attempts to roll his way past the Mounted Knight and the Chocobo while ignoring the Hellhound altogether. Succeeding at his gamble, the surprised Hellhound bites nothing but air.
Now adjacent to the knight he takes his one attack against the flying mount. The blade cuts deep into the Axebeak, cutting flesh and bone alike, the critical damage dramatically wounding the bird. It continues to fly, while its blood flows into the waterfall.
Denbora and Raven are up.
Mantis Ambush, Round 2 to 3:
Prayer is up, +1 to hit friend, -1 to hit foe
=> Raven [0 AoOs Used]
X Kain []
X Afficus []
X Gunari []
X Beheader Yellow [Red Shroud 2, FH, AC, BS, H]
X Beheader Orange [Red Shroud 2, FH, AC, BS, H]
X Beheader Red [Red Shroud 3, FH, AC, BS, H]
=> Denbora []
Raven stabs successfully three times, but the third could simply be considered literal overkill. The Red Mantis falls dead, his gamble to take out the largest threat a failure.
Denbora conjures up a spectral warhammer. What must be considered, "massive" to a gnome appears as nothing more than a small working hammer to the medium sized creatures in the group. It just barely taps the Orange Mantis for some minor damage.
Kain, Afficus, and Gunari are up.
Mantis Ambush, Round 2 to 3:
Prayer is up, +1 to hit friend, -1 to hit foe
X Raven [0 AoOs Used]
=> Kain []
=> Afficus []
=> Gunari []
Beheader Yellow [Red Shroud 2, FH, AC, BS, H]
Beheader Orange [Red Shroud 2, FH, AC, BS, H]
Denbora []
Gunari pulls out some intricate "chalices" (more of lidded tankards, but who's counting), and down the contents.
healing from hallowed chalice:3d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 2) = 4 healing from hallowed chalice:3d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 2) = 7 EDIT: Ryan tells me this won't work.
I assume the two 25's hit, and then the 21 missed? So he was down 7+9=16?
He then calls upon a pearl of power to restore his divine favor spell. He also offers to use folks' wands to heal everyone up as well.
"Well, that was envigorating!" he says, as he kicks the body of one of looted dead over the side into the waterfall. He also takes a moment to fold up one of the red mantis outfits and put it in his pack, "well, you never know when you might need one of these."
The hellhounds tear down the path looking for more things to kill. You see them come out the other side a few minutes later looking like they found nothing.
Coming of the battle-high, and going back on to the hype-high, Gunari yells at Raven, "ITHINKTHEREAREMOREANDWENEEDTOGOTAKECAREOFTHEM!!! BUTYOUSHOULDNTGOOUTLIKETHATALONE!" He then pulls out the tankard of the drunken hero, magically pours a drink into it, and then gulps it down, faster than is even normal for him. "THERENOWIAMHEROICALLYPOWEREDBYTHEDRUNKENHEROHIMSELFANDCANFIGHTEVENTBETTER! !! MANTHISHYPEISGOODSTUFFIHOPEIDONTCRASHWHENICOMEDOWN! WHYISEVERYBODYLOOKINGATMELIKETHAT?" Heroism, 30 minutes.
Gunari, all up on himself, walks up to Denbora, and is about to bump chests with him when he realizes that the angry gnome's head is about crotch high on him, so he just stops. "YOUTALKIN'TOME?"
He then turns around, not waiting for an answer, and joins Raven in front, Cayden's Churchkey drawn and ready.
The group begins making its way down the mist-filled cave. You can see the other end of the cave on the far end; there are no more figures inside. to your side, the curtain of cascading water continues to fall with a deafening roar. Kain stops.
Half-way along the path five carvings adorn the cavern wall in a circular pattern at eye level. Each face is sculpted in bas relief and it is the size of a human's head. At the center of the circle of faces juts out a strange pipe with a mouthpiece, like that of a wind instrument.
Gunari moves up to the recorder, and takes a look at it. He also looks at the five faces, in case he might know any legends about such a group. Of course, the Hype gets in the way of his clear thinking (or as clear as it ever is).
As Denbora blows hard, but not nearly as hard as he usually blows, you hear a resonance somewhere deep within the cliff face. The sound blows clear notes, sounding something like a sousaphone.
"Ok," laughs Gunari, "Now everyone knows that we are here!" He looks, a little puzzled, and says, "Should we just move on? I don't see a door here, do you?"
