Kael is struck with a mighty blow but seems relatively fine.
Light raises her gun up, drawing imaginary beads upon the beast before her. Making sure she'd taken a few steps back for a better distance just in case first, she would then take and hold a breath before squeezing the trigger.
"Gotcha!"
Lightt's musket ball strikes the Ofuda in the chest. It begins to shred away leaving 3 halfings to fall to the streets all unconscious.
The Mayor leans down to one of the halfings producing a vial of some sort and moves it under its nose. The male halfling awakes suddenly, "I thought I was going to die!" The mayor helps the halfing to his feet and drops the vial in his hand. "Your safe now... Give this to the others and go find cover." The halfling nods and begins waking the others.
Mayor Goldwill turns to you. "If your going to intervene regardless of what I say then use blunt weapons only! Otherwise you can harm thoughs inside thoughs things! I'll have to work out a punishment later..."
Ofuda Ogre #1 moves 30ft closer.
Kael nods though is somewhat hesitant, " I understand, though I don't think such methods are fully available to everyone or even wildly to myself. Mordrin, however can heal wounds so that may likely reduce any casualties. Punishments are afterthoughts. "
Mordrin moves toward the attacking creatures, his hand weaving a string of divine sigils as he approaches. As he completes the series of motions, he calls out a divine command and presses his divine focus to his chest.
Ofuda Ogre#1 begins to carry the halfling it captured away.
Kael sighs and does the only thing he could do in that situation, rush towards the people. " I assume you shall folloew me into this hell Mayor "
He rushes along the streets, hugging the buildings as he runs down.
Tassadar double moves towards the ogres.
Light reloads her gun, and snipes one of the Ofuda beasts. "I'll provide cover fire, take them out asap!"
Lightt's musket shot hits Ofuda Ogre#1 in the right shoulder. Mayor Goldwill gives Lightt a dirty look before running after Kael. "You do realize I fight these things alone normally right?" He shouts as he arrives next to Kael.
Ofuda Ogre#1 attacks Kael.
"Initiative Order"
25: Kael
18: Tassadar
17: Ofuda Ogre #3 (=Dead)
12: Lightt
11: Mayor Goldwill
11: Ofuda Ogre #1
6: Mordrin
1: Ofuda Ogre #2
0: Ofuda Ogre #4 (Falcon Pwanched=Dead)
Kael tries the evade the blow seeing the Giant somehow was much closer than he thought and he was out in the open and falls down, slamming his head to the ground.
Mordrin watches with fury as Kael falls to the ground! No! You will not harm my friends any more! As he reprimands the monstrous mysterious creatures, he grows to nearly double his usual size. He charges toward the ogre responsible and raises his quarterstaff in a mighty overhand blow, a dark energy swirling around the end of the staff. As he reaches his target, he slams the staff down into the creatures head, wishing desperately to obliterate it in one more fell strike.
"I doubt there is much choice at the moment. Either attempt to save them, or allow them to be taken for unknown reasons." Light adds' "this isn't the first or last time I'll accept later punishment for doing the right thing..."
Light loads another alchemical cartridge and steps 5ft closer.
"Mordrin, get Khael up!"
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It would be a crossbow shot then, which would probably miss since its AC 10. Also 5 ft closer.
With his allies managing to take ample care of destroying the strange creatures, Mordrin returns to his original strategy of helping to keep his friends and any innocents alive. As he sees Kael fall to the ogre's attack, he knows it is his duty to ensure his friend's safety. He rushes forward, but keeps enough distance between himself and the fight to make sure he can stay alive long enough to help Kael recover.
Tassadar and Mordrin both move up.
Lightt's shot finds its mark again and the Ofuda Ogre#1 goes down. A single halfling appears from the shredded paper.
Mayor Goldwill hesitates to move after the last Ofuda, but he sees Mordrin and Tassadar arriving so he moves forward with determination.
Kael's body tries to valiantly stop his lifeblood from spilling any further.
Tassadar reloads and shoots his crossbow again.
"Sorry, I told you I wasn't really good at this." He apologies.
Mordrin closes the distance between himself and Kael. As he arrives at Kael's side, he notices that his comrade's breathing seems somewhat regular, but he is clearly badly hurt. He kneels down by Kael's side and passes the blessings upon his spirit into Kael.
Kael awakes almost immediately looking up to Mordrin. " Are the people okay? " Noting the current situation had him on the ground.
" You have to power to heal multiple people. Make sure you get to them as out attacks could have wounded them to far and every second counts. I'll be fine for the moment. "
"seeings as the mayor is now closer to the remaining one I'll only intervene if necessary.
Ofuda Ogre#2 charges Mayor Goldwill.
Mayor Goldwill retaliates with an attack of his own.
The Ofuda takes a nasty punch from the Mayor.
Kael simply stood up, his weapons on the ground and checks on the halfing that fell near them.
Tasaadar lowers his croaabow and moves closer.
Mordrin stands alongside Kael, clearly relieved that his friend has recovered well enough to recommend a further strategy. Yes, I planned to provide healing to the townsfolk. I simply wished to provide as much healing for you as possible. I shall begin tending to the others now, however. Without further explanation, Mordrin raises his holy symbol, and releases a pulse of positive energy in the area, helping the halfling townsfolk to recover from their injuries.
" Much appreciated, this wasn't the first time I've been laid on the ground, it will not be the last. There is only one left and I believe we have mitigated losses. "
Light scans the area watching over the others. "welcome back Khael, I think the mayor has it handled."
Mayor Goldwill tries to finish off the last Ofuda.
With on final tearing noise, the last Ofuda Ogre goes down to the Mayors punch. This time however, a dog falls out. At Mordrin's channel, it wakes up and runs off barking.
"Combat Over!"
"Now now Mayor, you remember our deal." A voice rings out, as if coming from all around you. It sounds scratchy but monotone.
"My creations are not to be attacked by non blunt objects. It can hurt my offerings inside... which it has."
"What are you talking about?! All of them are fine!" Mayor Goodwill yells out, clearly demoralized.
"Hmmm... are you sure, perhaps you should look beyond the Taphouse."
"As for the others here... your all welcome to my domain... The Mayor can tell you where to go."
And then, in the distance, the sounds of ripping paper can be heard, from many directions. After which, silence once again.
"Care to elaborate, Mayor?" Light asks upon reaching the others. The gun now pointed towards the ground in a casual manner. Taking a quick glance to each of her comrades she ensures herself that everyone is fine before immediately keeping her eyes on the mayor.
"I expect he will complain about our tactics. No matter..." She almost instinctively thinks to herself.
Kael gives Light a hail and sign of vitality before his eyes went to the Good Mayor. Both steely and skeptical.
He had heard that voice, it rang out everywhere and did not seem either benevolent or maleficent. It however carried a tone of hidden mechanization.
" What is the meaning of this Goodwill? Why is there a voice from some ominous location spectating as if this was some game? There are mentions of offerings and domains. And this voice is somewhat displeased. I also do not recall the final Giant spiriting away a canine creature. Explain yourself. "
He turns to Mordrin, " Go check on the people inside the Taphouse and surrounding area, I do not like ominous speakings of wounded. Make sure they are all right. "
Kael sheathed his Ninja-to behind his back and shouldered his bow as he spoke methodically.
"Who are you speaking to, Mayor Goodwill? What arrangement do you have with the voice? And what offerings is that voice talking about? I believe you owe us an explaination." Tassadar stares at the Mayor.
Mayor Goldwill walks past the group, ignoring them entirely. He walks behind the Taphouse apprehensively and slows to a stop just on the backside of the building. He raises his hands to his face and tries to wipe away sweat and shock. Should the party round the corner, they are greeted with a grizzly sight.
Paper surrounds the body of a halfling woman, dyed red with her blood. In front of her is the man in fullplate from the Taphouse, neck snapped, still clutching his sword which is coated in blood. The hooded woman is not far from him, a smoldering hole through her throat.
A bell rings in the distance and halflings from the Taphouse immediately rush out the back door of the Taphouse. They stop... horrified by the sight that lays in front of them. Some immediately begin crying... others just stand in utter shock, almost as if they were to innocent for this world.
Mayor Goldwill turns slowly to the party, "Please... wait for me in my house just across the street... lock the door... I... I have some things to sort out currently..." The Mayor's words come off as a half plee and half order. There is an sadness in his eye, as if a long forgotten pain resurfaced.
Failing to get an answer out of the Mayor, Tassadar goes to check out the taproom. Greeted by the carnage he sees, he clutches the wall for support. He looks greener then usual. "This...isn't like what they say in books. There's so much blood...people in adventures never get a scratch, always come out gloriously victorious..."
He goes to look for Mordrin and asks if there's anything he can do to help.
The scene was grotesque to be sure, Kael had seen blood and gore. It rung back to his childhood and more recently the fate of one of his recent crew, yet the most damning part of this event was the apparent lies, secrets and ignorance of the situation.
He had expected this was all some sort of elaborate sick game, but it became much more cruel that he proposed. These two individuals seemed to have had died possibly trying to slay these creatures, only to be taken by some unknown force and mercilessly killed. How were they to know the " rules " to this struggle? That the halflings would be harmed as they cut the apparent Giants down?
Kael comes behind Tassadar and holds him upright, taking him away from the slaughter. " It is not as glorious as you previously perceived but is the reminder of what dangers we face. Are you sure you wish to pursue such a life? There could be more and at one point it very well could be yours. "
Looking to Goodwill and giving a somewhat sympathetic nod. " We will talk then... Unless the rest have something to say to this man now, we must all the victims to mourn. It is the only respectful thing we can do right now. "
"Better then standing there and just being slaughtered. I'd rather die fighting." He answers Kael curtly. The anger at being unable to help them was eating into him. "These people were just in an inn, minding their own business, they didn't go out to court death, but death came after them."
" That is how this life is for better or for worse. I did not know them as this was my first time seeing them. But It'd be best knowing they made their decision with the best knowledge they had. "
Walkingood behind the mayor curious of what he was looking for she stayed silent. As they rounded the corner the sight was a reminder. "this world is a dark place these days"
Waiting as the others spoke Light would interject towards the end, "Come," Light says in a low solemn tone. "this is not our place this moment" she would nod towards the mayor's said home and begin inside.
Mordrin follows the others wordlessly. As he rounds the corner and sees the gruesome scene, his jaw drops in shock and horror. He swiftly moves to the side of the two individuals he had sat just a few tables away from mere minutes ago. He kneels by their sides, looking to see if they might be saved by any means.
It quickly becomes clear to him that they are definitely dead. He lays a hand over their eyes and prays silently, begging that the gods will give them peace and rest in the next life. His rites completed, Mordrin stands and looks sternly at the mayor, ready to dress him down for his foolishness. But the sight of the mayor's sadness softens Mordrin's demeanor, and he turns along with the others to head toward the mayor's house.
Once everyone had funneled in, Kael locked the door behind them laying Tassadar against and wall and massaged the temples along his head. The situation was grim and much different than he expected. A slight thought of whether their group may have become afflicted from the curse a different way. According to the store owner he had already began exhibiting strange compulsions to write in scribe unknown to himself. That was already something he needed to investigate, the current situation took priority.
Once people were relatively settled, he began. " I do not wish to speak ill of Goodwill in his own home but I can only speculate there are complicated measures permeating this entire isle. And I doubt it is for the better. However Goodwill's expression seemed sincere. It almost reeks of intricate blackmail or more nefarious means. "
"I don't know." Tassadar is dissapointed that his hero had some kind of arrangement with the voice. "If he had nothing to fear, why didn't he explain things in the streets when we asked?" He points out. A dark notion came to him. "I can't help but feel he collaborated with the mysterious voice. Maybe he engineered the attacks so that he could play the hero? Was it all a game to him?"
" Playing the Hero has happened many a time usually with con artists and a reliable group of mercenaries or bandits. Sometimes if you wish to alternate and diversify your groups it used various forms of pirates. Usually some monetary value is established before hand and both sides would function on mutually assured destruction. "
Kael scratched his chin as his arms folded into one another, " This simply lacks the familiar motive of such a cause. More prevalent was the murders near the end of the event. To my knowledge the Giants had no clear way to crush and snap necks, nor burn holes through one's neck. I myself was harmed surely lethally, but not such that a heavily armored man would be killed standing. It seemed to come from the hidden enigma which owns the voice we all heard. Which may indicate the voice is attached to the halflings or related in some manner. "
As the party enters the Mayors house. They are greeted with a dusty smell. Many a baubles, trinkets and pictures hang from the walls and stand on shelves. Though as you make your way further in, these things become more sparse until the walls appear rather bare. Seeming to go from lived in to abandoned. You enter into what you can assume to be the living room. There in the room are a few sheet covered couches, a coffee table in the center which has a large tea pot upon it. A half empty tea cup sits still steaming on the table. A second empty one lays on the table as well. Though the main eye catcher of the room would no doubt be the half-elf man that sits with his feet propped up on the coffee table almost half asleep, but wakes from his drowsy state the instant one of you come into view.
He seems very thin, what muscle mass he has is very lean. Not quite five and a half feet tall, he wears average clothing and sports short orange hair with a trimmed goatee. A large scar starts from his left cheek reaching all the way to the bridge of his nose to the other side of his face and ends around his right eye. Each hand seems to have a spiked glove worn upon them. A bow and a rather crooked and flimsy looking spear that resembles a tree lay on the remainder of the couch.
Mordrin paces around the house once they all enter. He listens to Kael and Tassadar deliberating about who's at fault, who's behind all the carnage, so on and so on. In the end, he finds himself still bereft of words to deal with the sights this day brought to him.
He ponders the evidence of the bodies he had examined, trying to piece together how the ogres might have been able to inflict such grievous wounds on two warriors who seemed fairly capable in their own rights. Suddenly, a realization strikes him. The armored man's neck showed signs of something wrapped tightly around it. Mordrin remembers the sight of Amelia, hovering several feet above the deck of the ship, a shadowy tendril wrapped around her. Could there be a connection between the capture of their captain and former crewmate and the death of these two warriors? He would have to consider this further, and bring Kael and the others in on his suspicions, but now is not the time. Now they have a conversation with a certain mayor that needs to happen.
The man makes no effort to get up from his seat nor to remove his legs from the table, but you can see his eyes dart to his spear as if cataloging it's exact location.
"Well now... Ain't chy'all a right an proper lookin' odd kind o' sort."
"Hopefully you's the kind o' folk that get invited inta homes, yeah? Instead o' the ones who invite demselves."
Kael folds his arms a cold calculating stare upon the strange man and a narrowed look. He paces somewhat around, examining the spear and his equipment. " Who are you and why are you in mayor Goodwill's residence? Answer those first and we will begin exchanging information. "
"the like could be said of you" says Light, as she makes her way forward and sits down in a chair opposite the Elven man.
The man puts his arms up around the back of his seat, "Way I'ma figurin', seein's hows I was here first n' all, the right ta ask questions belongs to me."
The man nods to the woman as she takes a seat opposite him, "Ahh, but I'll humor ya all the same. Don't look too much like the crooked kind."
"The ol' mayor an I are some new acquaintances ya might say."
"I gots some biznesses ta takes care of over n' Kartheisly, an I was wondrin' if he couldn't give me ah hand n' it."
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