Braddon's dagger flies past the creature and splashes into the shallow water at the edge of the pond.
Braddon frowns.
"I've got more daggers here."
Braddon starts patting himself down with his free hand.
Tendal hesitates, the reefclaws wait warily, and Phillip continues to look for an open shot.
Tendal focuses for a moment pointing his cane out at a reefclaw near the back of group. Like the bolt from a crossbow, the cane shoots from his hand striking the shell of the creature with a sodden thump before slapping back into the palm of his hand.
"I believe if we focus our attacks on that one in the rear, its death-throes may allow us an advantage against its fellows." he states simply.
Tendal provides tactical guidance and an example to follow, stepping up and threading the needle between intervening reefclaws to score a hit on the one Braddon already wounded.
In reaction, the injured creature surges forward, with a frightening alacrity in the water that fortunately disappears when it struggles onto the bare stone.
"That awakened him... her?", Gristav half-cheered, slinging his staff and presenting his longbow in several relatively fluid motions. "Do fall back, when you can, Tendal. After another toss, perhaps. I'll loose an arrow when you're clear, then fall back myself..."
"We should all, fire as we're given a shot, then fall back beyond her lunge..."
<Flutter Flip Flit Set Flap>
With the blessing of his familiar, Gristav switches weapons, letting his staff clatter to the stone underfoot.
Snake's eyes glow a deep red as he peers directly at the closest reefclaw.
Snake's eyes glow a deep red
Seeing the light, limned along the longbow's limb, Gristav remembered the rotgut renegades, so faely felled...
And chuckled.
Snake's hex dulls the lead reefclaw's reflexes.
Those in the rear continue to wait in readiness.
"Get out the way!" Braddon snaps at Tendal, seizing upon another dagger. He flips it again and hurls it at the closest creature.
As the approach is set, Phil attempts to find a line to weave a crossbow bolt of his own through the morass of larger legs...
L Crossbow: for
Realizing that he somehow has ended in the front of the pack, Tendal sends his cane forth to strike the nearest reefclaw, but unfortunately simply sends the cane skittering across the creatures carapace before the weapon returns to his hand. He then moves unhurriedly to the rear of the group.
Turning a shoulder for Tendal's retreat, Gristav raised his magicked bow, sighting across a clothyard shaft the accursed crustacean, drawing his bow and breath at once, held together, and loosed in turns...
Stepping back a long pace, the archer-magus said, "Braddon, shift left, for Snake to fire."
Tendal's second attack, despite fewer obstacles, is less successful. When his staff has snapped back into his hand, he clears the way for his companions.
Gristav takes the opportunity to pierce the lead reefclaw with an arrow, before stepping back.
Clearly badly wounded, the dangerous creature drags itself closer to the group.
Despite the forest of taller legs in front of him, Phillip manages to shoot a bolt which sinks into the lead reefclaw. The crustacean goes into a sudden frenzy, its claws snapping at the air and the solid stone, before collapsing to the ground.
The other reefclaws show no reaction to the first one's demise, watching and waiting warily.
"Well struck, Phillip!"
"I'm gonna give them something else to concentrate on besides us. At least for a moment or two." The tall man then begins to work some of his magic.
"I better be getting these back," Braddon mutters, pulling out a third dagger. He flips it twice, sidesteps for a better view and hurls it at the creature on the shore.
"I'm gonna give them something else to concentrate on besides us. At least for a moment or two." The tall man then begins to work some of his magic.
"Clever. How much control do you have? Might it tongue for Braddon's daggers? Or if they seem to recognize it as prey, perhaps it can lead them all to leave?"
"I believe this to be a nest, we are unlikely to encourage them to depart their home environs without severing their mortal coils." Tendal says bluntly from the rear.
"We are here en segue a murderous woman, with two men missing, near her story, and some... something over there, drawing interest, with these things between us and it. They are going to move, along this plane or beyond it. And if I may lament the trespass, the bloodshed, I will avenge those men. One in particular. Though I still...", he said, adding at the last, weakly, "...hold hope."
Snake begins to cast a complicated spell.
The reefclaws continue to wait.
Braddon draws another dagger and sends this one with a crack into another reefclaw's shell.
Gristav steps forward, marking Braddon's target, and loosing another enchanted arrow...
Tendal stands ready to strike, cane in his hand watching the shadows dance as the reefclaws move in the pool beyond.
Phillip reloads his crossbow, but holds his shot - not trusting his aim with such large impediments betwixt him and it.
Like Tendal, Phillip prepares for the eventuality that the reefclaws make it past his allies.
Perhaps confusing the purple hue with an iris or other wild flower, Bolboretta alights momentarily on Braddon's hair, only to take flight an instant later as the half-elf's keen senses feel the fall.
Gristav's butterfly alights briefly on Braddon, leaving behind a trace of the divine.
Snake finishes his spell, and a monstrously-oversized frog phases into existence between the reefclaws and the party. Before the aquatic aberrations can react, the frog opens its massive mouth and seizes the already-wounded reefclaw, blinking placidly.
Dropping his weapon, he pulls out his sling and fires.
Snake drops his morningstar and draws a sling, loading a bullet.
The reefclaw nearest the suddenly-appeared frog lashes out at it, leaving behind a tiny scratch.
Another in the pool moves closer but fails to damage the frog.
The one behind that, unable to reach the frog, clicks its claws in frustration.
Braddon rummages for his final dagger and lets it fly at the wounded creature in the mouth of the giant frog.
"Have you guys got any daggers," Braddon asks. He waves his bastard sword at the creatures. "I'm not gonna throw this."
Lacking a clear shot, Gristav nevertheless fires on the grappled Reefclaw to the right of the frog.
Then he reaches into whatever nearby space to pick up his staff.
Like Braddon's dagger, Gristav's arrow just misses its target; he retrieves his staff, however.
Tendal stepped forward, and spotted the narrow opening where he could see the mottled ocean slick shell of the reefclaw just past the summoned frog. Tendal narrowed his eyes and focused, sending his cane rocketing from his hand to strike at the shell of the crustacean.
A sudden movement of the summoned frog causes him to lose his focus for a brief instant and the cane skitters across the shell of the reefclaw and clacks against the wall before zipping back to his hand.
Tendal's magical attack also fails to injure the reefclaw.
The reefclaw in the frog's mouth feebly strikes out at the amphibian but cannot connect.
Phillip shuffles a bit, notes his still impeded view and prevents a premature quarrel release.
Phillip waits for an opening, as does the rearmost reefclaw.
Bolbo flits over the corpse , to offer luck to the frog. Aware of it AS a frog, and of the deadly tongue, but knowing it, somehow, as an ally.
The butterfly alights upon the frog, which clamps down anew on the struggling reefclaw.
Braddon rummages for his final dagger and lets it fly at the wounded creature in the mouth of the giant frog.
"Have you guys got any daggers," Braddon asks. He waves his bastard sword at the creatures. "I'm not gonna throw this."
Snake ponders the ranger's question a moment and then remembers. "I got daggers, bub. About a dozen of them." He then drops his sling and pulls out two blades.
Snake drops his sling and unsheathes two daggers.
The reefclaws in position to attack the frog do so, but only one manages to pierce the rubbery skin.
Snake ponders the ranger's question a moment and then remembers. "I got daggers, bub. About a dozen of them." He then drops his sling and pulls out two blades.
Snake looks to his friend upon his shoulder. "Here, Luck, take this over to Braddon," he tells him, offering the dagger and motioning toward the ranger, hoping he understands.