Coughing to clear her lungs of the noxious fumes, Avora begins casting a spell. A few seconds later, a pair of electric blue, crackling balls leave her hand and head straight for the gorgon.
Somehow, Shanya manages to escape the worst of the breath.
She stares down the bull, her mind racing. Stone breath. Avoid getting in front of it. Aim for its eyes--rapier might not pierce its hide, but eyes should be vulnerable.
She runs at the bull, her rapier readied, and lunges!
Veins of stone work their way up Lana's body; the oracle turns to stone, her face frozen in the awkward act of trying to expel the poisonous gas from her lungs. Ankih manages to fight off the effects of the gas.
Shanya lands a solid blow; the gorgon stumbles back in pain and directly into both of Avora's balls of lightning.
[b]Kalt
Kalt breathes in quickly, ready to charge forward, just as the gorgon expels its noxious, green cloud! His skin actually darkens, turning from snow-pale to stone-grey, streaked with dark lines and specks like granite, and his movements slow and then suddenly stop! Like Lana, Kalt's face looks like that of a statue caught mid-cough, as he tried to get the gas out of his lungs while turning to stone.
The gorgon stamps and tosses its head about at Shanya and Sven. The creatures horns catch Shanya firmly in the stomach , while a hoof slams painfully down on Sven's feet. The beast snorts defiantly at the small creatures invading its space.
"Varka", begins to laugh, at first softly. But the laughter grows ragged and bitter as the woman's skin expands and distorts, and her body swells in size. Before your eyes, the maiden becomes a crone with skin the color of a fresh bruise. Although hunched over, she looms taller than a human. She once again speaks in perfectly clear Skald, although the sound is twisted and distorted into a rasp.
(Skald) "Troublesome creatures; bad enough you will not slay Jadrenka, you intend to barter with her for Baba Yaga's favor. This will not do, no not one bit. It will not do at all." Her leathery lips curl back to reveal sharpened fangs and she beckons with claw-like fingernails.
Kalt struggles to fight off the petrifying effects of the gorgon's breath, and it looks at first like he won't manage it. Knowing that his friends face multiple foes, and sudden treachery, he digs deep, gritting his teeth and groaning fiercely, and breaks loose of the magical effect! He skin seems to crack in places as he moves, shedding a fine layer of gray stone which falls clattering to the floor.
"On my way, Bjornson," he mutters, his words slightly slurred from what he's just gone through, and his brain too muzzy to catch Sven's humor. He gets into position opposite Sven and deals the gorgon a powerful blow!
Avora takes a step back and spreads her arms. Her face distorts and lengthens into a muzzle and hair covers her body. Her fingernails lengthen into claws and her teeth grow long and sharp. A guttural roar bursts from her throat, enough to shake the very ground on which the party stands. In the next instant, she has been replaced by the form of a very large bear.
The mystical bull's blood splatters in great gouts as the two warriors blades strike the creature again and again, but the stupid, stubborn beast keeps its feet. Although gravely wounded the snorting Gorgon seems like it has one or two more solid hits left within its unnaturally strong muscles.
In a mirror of the gorgon's strength and ferocity, Avora swells in size and strength - and beautiful, unlike the twisted transformation of Varka-turned-Caigreal.
The wind gets knocked out of Shanya as the gorgon rams a horn into her stomach. She spits out blood, the coppery tang filling her mouth.
F$&#. F!++. F##$. Gored in the stomach. Lana petrified. Varka was actually a demon in disguise (How the F!*& did I not realize that?!). Gorgon is still standing. Stab it in the eyes. Stab it, dammit!
She readies her rapier again, stabbing relentlessly. The first one going for its mouth...
...and the second, this time aimed right at the gorgon's eye!
Shanya's blows both land solidly, and the creature totters, it's eyes on the verge of rolling up into its head - but still, it clings to life, the foam at its mouth specked with blood.
Lana shudders as she finally manages to overcome the creature's foul breath. Taking a few seconds to get her bearings, she glances around before moving quickly up the stairs and releasing some of her spirit to boost her companion's.
Ankih retreats from the hag and prepares to counter magic with magic - but the enormous hag instead moves forward and moves to sink her claws into Avora. Her arms then attempt to wrap around the skinwalking woman-turned-bear and tear her flesh.
The Gorgon, meanwhile, clings to life, lashing out slowly and painfully at the three heroes flanking it. A hoof manages to catch Kalt in the gut, causing the warrior to stagger for a moment.
Shanya looks at the gorgon in sheer exasperation. "...really?"
She stabs at the beast again...
Shanya wounds it, but the creature still burns with a terrible bovine hatred.
Seeing the badly wounded gorgon struck by Shanya and Sven, Kalt moves across the room and into the hall, saying, "Come on, Bjornson, there's work yet to be done." He strides past Lana and Avora and takes a position along the grappling hag's side.
Avora engages the hag, trying to break the grapple.
The gorgon gives one final complaining snort as the axe wound finishes the work of Shanya's dagger blow. The great beast sags to the ground and shudders once.
Caigreal gives a raspy laugh as Avora attempts to to squirm out of her grasp, holding tight to the druid. (Skald)"Oh I do hope you stay this way, dear; your skin would make a wonderful floor covering for my room."
Ankih circles behind Kalt and readies magic to interfere with the hag's magic once again.
"Smash her to death!" yells Lana, feeling Avora's wounds pulse through her spirit. Opening herself to the pain, she lets healing flow back through the link toward the big bear-druid.
Avora roars again, as if trying to tell her companions something important, even as she struggles. This time, instead of seeking to free herself, she clamps down on the hag's shoulder.
Caigreal releases Avora and steps back, eyeing the approaching Kalt. (Skald)"Ah yes, one of the strong ones. May Mestama bless you!"
The hag calls her curse down upon Kalt, reaching out to touch him with her dark, malevolent magic. Ankih shouts in response. "By Sarenrae, no! Let the light preserve." Three magic missiles leap from his fingers and rip across the enormous body of the hag, who screams briefly before losing the magic. "Curse you human!" Caigreal concentrates but a brief moment and a duplicate image of the hag appears, confusing the eye.
Kalt studies the hag a moment, grateful that he's not laboring under another curse and eager to end the creature's threat to the party. He then steps forward and takes two powerful swings, hoping to hit her rather than her magical duplicate.
Avora, now freed from the hag's grasp, visits her full fury upon the wretch.
Caigreal cackles gleefully, as her thick skin and magical defenses turn away both claw and sword although her illusory duplicate is dispelled for a moment.
(Skald)"Scabs! Dunghills! Pox bearing louts!
When a mouth bites a tail, the tongue does wag; "I mark a gentle witch", these knaves to say.
Best read the stars, and learn: they circle not for you.
The Mother of Witches will as soon toss you away as use you.
I should know, for did she not do the selfsame to me?
She put the spawn of my loin, my fawning daughter in my place.
Mantle bearers yes, and fools."
Shanya turns to face the hag and runs forward, changing weapons as she goes.
"You LOVE hearing yourself talk, don't you?"
"Oh, Avora, Sven, Kalt? Just punch the daft b$@%$'s teeth in. Blunt force works best against them."
His offensive magic largely exhausted, Ankih casts magic circle vs. evil, step up besides Kalt and touches him, affording him the divine protection of Sarenrae. The warrior feels his touch skin glow with the goddesses warmth.
Tilting her head this way and that, Lana determines the best angle to use as she extends her spirit to engulf Kalt's wounds as well.
(Skald) "Yes, I agree. The time for talk is past."
Caigreal forsakes her magic and lashes out with her terrible claws and teeth. She bites at Avora, missing, and then claws twice at Kalt.
Only one of the claws lands a blow but it is enough for the giant hag to sweep Kalt off of his feet. She pulls the warrior close to her body. Spittle from the hag's mouth splatters Kalt's face as she whispers into his ear.
(Skald)"Such strength, human. You would make a fine father, human; perhaps I will take your seed before I eat your flesh."
Taking a deep breath, Lana tries to keep the immense pain from overwhelming her. With a shake of her head she hurries toward Kalt, drawing strength from the presence of her friends.
”You’ll have nothing from me but pain and death,” Kalt says brusquely, using all his strength to break free of Caigreal’s grip. With a quick glance at Sven, he says, ”Bjornson, pin her, would you? I’m tired of her chatter.”
Wounds - cracking skin and bright red sores - open and close on Lana's withered arms as she both absorbs and assuages the pain of others.
Meanwhile, Kalt superhumanly burst his bondage, shrugging his way free of the embrace - his escape perhaps stirred to greater heights by the annis hags entreatments. Caigreal is surprised, but not so surprised that she easily pushes Sven back in his own attempts to overpower here, unbalancing the warrior.
Ankih, his magic begin to run low, calls upon Sarenrae and hurls fiery bolt, which goes astray in the chaos of battle.
Avora attempts to slap the witch again.
Avora heaves her mountainous pile of muscle and fur forward, sinking her teeth and claws into the hag. Caigreal coughs out a muted gasp of surprise at the wounds.
Shanya skids to a stop next to the shapeshifted Avora. Thinking quickly, she tries to get behind the hag...
...but unfortunately, she doesn't have any success whatsoever.
Caigreal lashes out at Shanya as she tries to dart by; fortunately for the changeling, the claw swings well over Shanya's head.
The annis clutches the wooden unholy symbol peaking from beneath her tattered shift.
(Giant)"Lord Mestama, let these joltheads and giglets well learn the power of your caress"
A dark pulse of energy washes over the heroes, touching all and causing painful aches and boils to spread over their skin.
Kalt resists the annis hag's foul blast, muttering, "What in the hells is a jolthead?" He then strikes her a devastating blow, following it up with a feeble one.
The greatsword sinks into the sinewy flesh of the hag's midsection, red blood slowly oozing from the wound.
She huffs and pauses for a moment before snarling. (Skald)"Emaciated swine; a bit of blood dribbles from the side of her mouth as she curses Kalt. "That hurt."
She grabs the blade in her bare hands and pulls, using her great strength to force Kalt back and extract the point from her stomach. The hag, although wounded, seems full of sound and fury.
Avora, enraged, attacks again, seeking to take the hag's head off with her blows.