Malavine's attack is a solid hit, but these foes are quite seasoned in battle, and even such a hit is not enough to drop him.
Zelda switches to her bestial form and moves up to flank with Kephry.
Initiative order: Kephry, Hickle, Liath, Badguys, Zelda, Malavine.
Top of Round 2. Kephry, Hickle and Liath may act.
His eyes keen with green arcane light. "Hmm... Interested in trying out a new spell matrix of mine, my boy? I think you're going to like this one!" Exclaimes the inventor, hands flashing with that same light just as he claps them together. Two tunic circles spring into existence around the robot's weaponized arm rotating counter to one another as he takes aim at the rooftop arbalists.
Any hint of skeptisism vanishes from his posture as the spell takes hold. The bullets spring fourth with vigor into their intended target first, before shooting straight towards the other rooftop occupant. After both shots bounce fourth the circles around Shmick's weapon wink out of existence.
He pauses. "You're right. I do like this one. ...Do it again."
All of Stormchaser's shots hit except the 2nd ricochet. The men are increasingly injured, but as yet undaunted by the damage.
Kephry does a full attack on the same one he's been fighting, despite the poison.
great terbutje (raging)
great terbutje (raging)
Liath may act.
Being disarmed and heavily slammed on by Liath, with his sword several yards away, the thug moves back 5' and picks up the crossbow.
Kephry's opponent attacks with the rapier:
The two on the roof, befuddled that their ambush has been less than effective and they've wasted their poison bolts, nevertheless fire again down into the crowd.
At Liath:
At Kephry:
Malavine and Zelda may act.
"Y'know, ambushes only work if the first attack works. You guys are pretty screwed." She tossed the Starknife again. It seemed like the thing to do.
Zelda attacks opposite Kephry.
Bite:
Claw:
Claw:
Top of Round 3
Kephry, Hickle/Shmick, Liath
great terbutje (raging)
great terbutje (raging)
"Now now, you can't jus thog all the fun to yourself you know! Give this old man his due as well, why don't you?" He says with a gleam, his hands lighting up once again before he claps them together. Every time he uses this spell, it seems like he finds a new and more interesting way to truly execute it.
The construct scoffs at his master for holding out on his latest toy, but takes care to follow up by trying to hit each arbalist once.
Hickle's spell takes out one of the rooftop assassins, who then falls and finishes dying.
Shmick adds minimal damage to the other.
Liath's opponent stubbornly hangs on to life, but is far from amused.
Liath's opponent staggers back 5' and fires his crossbow at point blank range.
Looks like that hits, need a Fort Save, since he had yet to fire his poison bolt.
Kephry's opponent attacks with the rapier:
The lone remaining rooftop assassin flees across the roof.
Malavine and Zelda may act.
Malavine sighed. "Seriously, why do people never run away when it becomes horribly clear they're all going to die if they stand and fight?" The Starknife lashed out again.
Since the only remaining rooftop assassin did, in fact, run away, Malavine's attack finishes Liath's foe.
At the top of the round, Kephry finishes her opponent, effectively ending the combat unless one of you offers a means/intent to follow the one running away on the rooftops.
The gnome looks up to the rooftop, and shakes his head wearily. "No use in catching that one I'm afraid. Should've brought them down as well."
There are the three heavy repeating crossbows, all loaded; 3 masterwork rapiers, one potion of cure serious wounds, wyvern poison(3 doses), 1250 gp worth of coins and gems between them. There is also one pair of boots that appears to be of exceptional quality and design.
Finally, there is a paper written in Osirian glyphs. Hickle will be able to translate it: the paper contains descriptions of the party, except for Liath.
Do you head out of town, or wait for the town guard? It may take up a significant portion of the day to sort out what happened with the guard and a constable, but if you do not, there may be inquiries.
Malavine looked surprised as the Starknife returned. "It's nice to fight people with enough common sense to, you know, not die."
Curious about the boots, Hickle takes them in hand while his eyes alight with magic.
The boots are an odd bit of curiosity, as they have nothing at all to do with movement. They have mid-range transmutation and enchantment auras, and appear to enhance one's strength of personality.
|
"They were an assassination squad, contracting out for some party that very much want us dead," Liath states quite sure of herself as she stuffs the weapons and equipment of the dead men into her pack. "He ran not to save his own skin as much to report on the status of the mission, and that they will need to try again. Probably harder. We would have been better off to kill them all.
This is why leniency is a sign of weakness.
I have no desire to explain this to some local bureaucrat with more as many rolls of fat as pens in need of ink that views this attack as his sole reason to justify his over-generous paycheck.
We should away."
"That's...an evocative image. Agreed, though."
Heading out of Tephu and into the desert, you begin following the pull of the Compass once again. After a short time in the heating sun, Hickle feels a strong "yank" off into the dunes to one side.
"Amazingly yes." Shmick responds rather then his master. "The stench of your sweat is far more revolting then most of you fleshbags tend to be. It must be from your attempt to compensate for your pliable meat casing, locking in all the heat from the overhanging sun. Please take a long drawn out bath at your earliest convenience."
Hicklespurn grunts his disapproval towards Shmick. "Now now, enough of that my boy. If you're referring to the compass my dear girl, then yes, it appears I've caught the scent of something. Over in... that-a-ways direction."
|
|
Liath swishes the water in her mouth a bit, chewing over the war-bot's statement before swallowing and replying to the autamaton. "While I can accept that you were given a sense of smell in order to better find foul Xenos, that you are allowed to feel such fruitless sensations such as revulsion seems...superfluous. One might hope that thy internal workings might deserve a, ah, 'degradation' once time allows. For efficiency."
That done, she turns to the gnome. "I should wonder what would make it swing about so shockingly, but I hope we find out once we've run our target down."
The gnome snorts. "Preposterous, he's just trying to get a rise out of you girl." His companion makes no comment, though crosses his arms and looks elsewhere.
"It's not too far off I'd say, and we've already deviated plenty as is. Shall we take a peak at what's around the bend, hm?"
Noting that Schmick was possibly not going to be an ally if anything happend to Hickle, Malavine replied, "It hasn't led us wrong yet. If nothing else the more we know the more we can do to stop them."
After about an hour, the signal gets much stronger, and the compass starts spinning at the center, indicating you're right on top of whatever is guiding it. Nearby, Malavine notes something peculiar sticking out of the sand in the morning sun. On closer inspection, it turns out to be a human corpse, sun-baked and half buried in the sand.
"Well... Wonder who this was, Hm?" Hickle casts a minor spell, bequeathing excavation tools for both him and his construct. With unspoken agreement Shmick aids his master in completely unearthing the corpse.
"Careful it's not an undead trap," Malavine suggested, Starknife at the ready. "But at a guess it's probably the last person who was wearing that mask. Maybe it's hungry?"
|
|
"It's a...corpse?" Liath blurts out, confused. "My first inclination is to smash it, given the nature of our enemy, but seeing as it is not attacking us, even though but partially submerged, I will leave it be for the now.
Still, I trust you do not think me slothful as I stand watch while you unearth it. At the first movement I shall slay it."
True to her word, she stands close, shield held high and flail held back, watching for the first sign undead movement.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, an dark arrow flies down out of the sky and strikes Kephry solidly in the back, negative energy radiating out from the wound as the cat-woman screams in pain and then suddenly ceases all movement.
Fort Save:
A howling corpse swoops through the air with hideously elongated legs and a bow made of bone.
Initiative:
Creature:
Liath:
Malavine:
Hickle:
Zelda:
Initiative Order: Creature, Party
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The creature fires three more arrows: one at Zelda, one at Liath, one at Malavine.
Zelda:
Confirm:
Zelda only takes 8 HP because the negative energy actually heals her.
Liath:
Malavine:
The 1d6 part of the damage is negative energy. If the creature hit you, make a Fort Save.
"Not the kind of trap I was expecting..." Malavine muttered, aiming her Starknife and hoping to blow the monster out of the sky...it it was in range.
Malavine's hit is solid, appearing to damage the creature normally.
Zelda, like Kephry, stops moving.
Liath and Hickle/Shmick may act