Braddon takes a step towards Lil and brings both weapons to bear against Bojasc.
"Just step behind me, you sexy thing," Braddon gestures over his shoulder. "I'll keep you safe. You can reward me later. I've been keeping an eye on that bed you left behind."
Braddon's oversized blade hacks at Bojasc again.
"You stay away from her bed, you rabbit-eared bastard!" Bojasc rasps back, his battleaxe returning the blow Braddon's bastard sword just delivered to him.
"Another moment, I'd have had this cleared.", Gristav smiled at Tendal, then at Phil as he rounded the corner. "Haste makes paste?", he offered, chuckling.
He spun out the flaming flare of fae forces, with certain skill he'd never had, didn't have now, but had seen, and now, called on... and the webs between his companions seared away, shrunk, and fell to nothing in the way of magical things. Gladly, before the flames could run up the webs toward them.
Past Tendal, Gristav could now see clearly, or clearly enough, the scarlet summoner of the restraints. The architect of the whole week's woes... No, the wave was probably not her. But Zaiome, and the cat's-paws slain at the Goblin, and... Larur.
Wroth and Will and Wyrd all boiled in Gristav, all shone in his dwarf-grey eyes. That then met the teifling's. And Fate flapped a wing.
Gristav moves forward and burns away the webs holding Tendal and Phillip in place. His flashing eyes and floating hair bode no weal for the tiefling ... eventually.
Snake focuses on the big fella, a red glow emanates from his eye.
Unseen, Bolbo had added its tiny glare to Gristav's glower, aware in the nascent oneness with the half-elf of the mounting grief in the memory of Larur. A tiny glower from a compound eye, this had no effect. Bolbo then again added the luck of the Lady onto Gristav, crawling around his collar, out of sight of the enemy. Even before Gristav knew, Bolbo knew the man was tensing to charge...
Snake curses Bojasc in an attempt to help Braddon.
Lil finishes her incantation, and with a puff of sulfurous smoke, a Small, hideous, bloated biped appears on the stairs next to Snake. Its claws can't penetrate his abjuration, but a mouth full of crooked, needle-like teeth bites into his torso.
Lil draws a slender wand. "Darling, hurry," she breathes. "We have to get out of here."
"A dretch. A minor demon I believe. The common dretch is difficult to harm with the common elemental energies such as fire, cold and acid. " Tendal said offhandedly, nodding his thanks to Gristav as he moved free of the web to position himself for spellcasting.
Tendal rubbed the fingers of his right hand and a familiar sizzling and popping sound filled the air for a moment as his fingers trailed arcane light. "Unguen evectum." he intoned, pointing his cane toward the group at the top of the stairs.
Tendal finds a modicum of cover and targets a spell at the floor near the bay window. Distracted by the ongoing combat, neither Lil nor Bojasc is ready for the ground beneath their feet to become slippery; both hit the floor, Bojasc with a grunt, Lil with a squeal.
With a short nod to Gristav acknowledging the freedom granted, Phil looks to approach. He considers the demon and laments that his art is unlikely to garner him safe passage past the beast, instead drawing near and drawing steel. His eyes flicker with a wan yellow light as he grips the handle, invoking the Wasp's sting to lend cruel edge to his blows. Circling slightly he lashes out for the soft midsection of the dretch...
Phillip moves forward to threaten the demon attacking Snake, but his dagger fails to penetrate abyssal flesh.
"You stay away from her bed, you rabbit-eared bastard!"
Braddon leers at Bojasc as Lil calls for her darling to hurry up.
"Haven't you spent anythime in that bed?" Braddon circles with his sword."It's so soft and comfortable. Lil even let her scribe next door, Weatherhead, watch through a hole in the wall." Braddon grins.
"I guess now you'll never find out."
Braddon attacks with both weapons.
Braddon's blades slice viciously into the vulnerable Varisian. Bojasc's eyes roll back in his head, and his only response is a gush of blood over Lynley Chatham's presumably expensive rug.
Gristav watched the slash at the fallen Bojasc, the opening it made the murderer's compromised defense, and the following thrust. It brought only faint satisfaction, just another dead Varisi catspaw, caught like they had been, in the Tiefling's web.
"The men, perhaps all men, I can understand. But why the Varisi? What earned the Varisi so much death at your hands?", Gristav asked, not really rhetorically, of Lil.
Almost absently, he also gestured toward the space before him, letting the edge of the arc described in his hand's motion include the Dretch, and exclude Phillip.
Gristav's spread fingers emit a vivid cone of clashing colors, which the demon shrugs off.
Dropping his conjured battle poi and drawing his bow, Gristav withdraws up the stairs behind the railing.
Seeing how Braddon has taken out the big man, Snake looks down at the annoying pest with a stone/scowl like visage and attempts to smash it.
Bolbo again grants Guidance to his half-elf friend.
Snake swings his morningstar at the demon, but it dodges the blow.
The demon once again attacks Snake but has no better luck than his target.
Without attempting to get to her feet, Lil half-crawls, half-slides out of the grease. "Protect me," she begs Braddon, looking up from where she is huddled beside a couch.
Braddon turns to his companions, swords lowered but not sheathed.
"Okay guys. We got Bojasc. Head back and tell Saul, and I'll... take care of Lil."
He gives an exaggerated wink and grins.
"We've got to kill that demon!", Gristav gambited, "And if that tail was from the Gendarmes, they could be here any minute."
It was a bluff, of course, but led with a truth that was also a lie, it was also confusing. And Braddon was already distracted.
Gristav, from his vantage above the sitting room, had a good enough view of Lil, that he had to forgive Braddon most of that distraction.
"Braddon, don't be foolish. Lil has always been our primary target. If you are unable to disable her, then you certainly should apprehend her for her own safety, such that she can be delivered to the authorities."Tendal interjected, attempting to re-engage Braddon in their mission.
"Phillip, I will need you to lean this way for a brief second so I can enhance your weapon." Tendal continued.
In the space of a bare moment, Tendal sketched out the required runes in the air, then swept his hand through the floating array, catching the magic onto his hand. "Telum augendae." he intoned. Then, when Phillip paused his strikes at the demon, Tendal tapped the wielded dagger.
Seizing on Tendal's words, Phillip seeks to reinforce "Aye Braddon... the whore queen and rat king are after Lil... unless you keep her safe and sound out of view... she'll be gutted and hung out to cure... you've got to keep her here... where she's safe"
As his tongue attempts to fight the sorcerous nature of Braddon's sudden friendliness, he attempts to be pointedly unfriendly to the summoned creature before him...
Phillip stabs again at the demon with his newly-ensorcelled blade but comes no nearer injuring it.
"You've got to make her safe, by killing that demon!"
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Braddon rolls his eyes and turns to Lil.
"These rubes are useless without me. I'll get rid of them and be back in a moment."
He charges down the steps to land beside Snake and hacks at the only creature that isn't his friend, the demon.
Braddon comes charging to the rescue, his mighty blade slashing deeply into abyssal flesh.
"Toss away the wand, Miss Scarlet.", Gristav directs from behind a nocked arrow. "You'll want your hands free, yes? If you do any else, I shall do my best to feather you. You're too capable to be treated incautiously."
Snake swings again, hoping for much greater success.
Snake swings his weapon again, this time hitting the demon soundly. It starts to crumple and then winks out of existence.
"To mar such beauty...", Gristav mused, and loosed the arrow.
"It would seem not."
As Snake moves up the stairs, Lil's eyes flash.
The next moment, Gristav's arrow embeds itself in the side of Lynley Chatham's couch.
Tendal rose and strode from where he had been seeking cover, up the stairs, past his comrades, with the confidence borne of calm calculation. His cane snapped from his hand, lashing out with arcane force, striking the foe where she cowered.
"You should be honored." Tendal said drolly, as his cane snapped back into his hand. "We know enough of your machinations that even now, none of us trust you. Several of us wouldn't even trust you if your brains were dashed out against the lovely wood paneling. Please be a dear and lose consciousness quickly."
The way cleared by the dismissal of the demon, Tendal climbs the short set of stairs and sends his cane spinning toward the tiefling. Despite it hitting with a distinct crack, Lil seems unharmed.
With the Demon dispatched, Phil shifts focus and strides in an attempt to put himself near to Lil, but stops at the edge of the grease...
"What in the Nine Hells is wrong with you!?" Braddon glares at Gristav and rounds on Tendal. He gives his bastard sword a quarter turn and attempts to smash Tendal in the head.
As Gritav fires and Phillip closes in, Braddon rushes back to the side of Scarlet Lil.
"Guys, I said to BACK OFF! I've got Lil under control."
He brandishes both swords at his companions, albeit still with the flat of the blade turned.
Phillip moves up the stairs toward Lil.
Braddon slaps Tendal out of the way with the side of his blade and hurries back toward Lil as well.
Hissing as Braddon succumbs to his witch-twisted mind, Phillip keeps his focus upon Lil.