Agaban rushes over to Jackdaw and casts delay poison.
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Popping to his feet, the confused Jackdaw says in Saul Gibson's voice, "It was a dark and scary night, the drow were coming, and gritty gumshoe Saul Gibson was on the case. With his trusty sidekick Jackdaw, the two were sure to get to the bottom of the caper. Why are the two never seen at the same time, everyone wonders?"
Shaking his head, Jackdaw suddenly realizes what he said and what current costume he is in. Switching his voice back to the gravely cut-off tones, he mutters, "You should ignore that."
Zaza moves up behind Lo'Laan and prepares to help trip a drow who comes within her whip's reach while maintaining her song.
Amari and Hadha miss but Lo'laan strikes a solid blow while the Jackdaw recovers from the poisoned bolts.
But instead of charging in, the wily drow reposition and level their crossbows at Lo'Laan, who has moved to the front, making himself a target. They pepper him with crossbow bolts but get rather unlucky aside from one hard shot. The damage is not too serious but he begins to feel drowsy...
Darkness seeps into Lo's vision as the Drow Poison runs its course. After a few seconds of futile resistance, Lo falls unconscious.
Amari rushes forward, positioning himself between two of the dark elves, clearly intending to cut their retreat. He looses an arrow against the one with the spear cut
Hadha moves up to get a clear shot at the cost target.
Jackdaw, Amari, and Hadha all land solid strikes. Zaza moves forward and tries to trip one of the drow while protecting the fallen Lo'laan.
But the drow warrior shrugs off her whip.
The drow leader and Shalazat continue to exchange angry, rapid flashes of spells and weapon blows. You and the drow soldiers seem to have agreed it is wiser to give them space.
The drow next to Amari sees Amari has no melee weapon drawn and fires point blank at him (provoking from Amari's feet). The drow on his other side drops his crossbow and draws a rapier. The other three drow all drop their bows and rush forward to thrust at Zaza.
Amari is missed but Hadha is struck with the rapier lightly (2 dam) but feels the poison coursing through him. He manages to throw it off, however (botted a 21 save). Zaza is struck three times but strikes one of the drow as he moves to flank her. But she succumbs to the poisoned rapiers as well.
Hadha steps back out of reach and fires a full power beam at the one he just entangled.
With a wicked grin, Amari sends a kick against the drow who thought him unable to respond.
Followed by a lightning fast series of three arrows aimed to take down the first if the enemies. Should the first fall, he will redirect the remainder to the one he just kicked.
Lo'laan and Zaza have fallen. Agaban does what he can to help but his resources are low and he misses with his crossbow. But Amari, Hadha, and Jackdaw all lash out with disciplined fury, finishing off two of the drow and wounding a third (orange).
Seeing Amari launch three deadly arrows, the drow converge on him to attack. Two miss the wily monk but a third lands a small scratch on him (2 dam). The monk begins feeling tired but his training lies deep inside him and he refuses to be fatigued, shaking off the poison (I rolled 14 for his save against DC 13).
Hadha steps back to make sure he can't get stabbed again and zaps the drow!
Well aware of the impending doom inflicted by every ever so small wound, Amari redoubles his effort to take down as many Drow as possible while they are all focused on him.
He employs all the tricks of the Al'Fahd close-quarter fighting training to make himself as hard a target as possible, all the while shooting arrow after arrow at point blank range.
Amari lands one of his shots while Jackdaw lands a jab with his spear and Hadha misses once. Suddenly, the drow leader tumbles away from Shalazat and fires a spell at Jackdaw, Amari, and Hadha, lances of fire shooting out and striking into you (17 fire damage each as the scorching rays hit you). Shalazat responds quickly by throwing a dagger that strikes one of the drow and manages to luckily deflect off it into another. The dagger continues zipping around the room with incredible speed, striking three drow and downing one of them, before returning to her hand (startoss shower) then she steps to engage with the drow leader once more, spells and blades flashing back and forth between the two. The remaining drow try to recover from their wounds and step around Amari to jab at him, each striking at him twice, but the monk dodges every attack!
Flinching from the new horrible burning scar across his bare chest, the black skinned monk does not pause in the intricate fighting dance drilled into him by his upbringing. Dodging, arrow drawing and firing intertwined in one uninterrupted fluid movement.
Edit: spend 2 Stamina on that 18 to make it a 20.
Hadha's vision blurs as the fire stiches its way across his shoulder and left side of his chest. He keeps it together, but barely. With great effort and a strained grunt, he fires another ray at the one directly in front of him (purple)
but the pain is too much and his aim is severely mis-judged.
Amari and Jackdaw finish off one of the drow with a blow to the other. At the same time, Shalazat strikes the drow spellcaster multiple times with her blade, dropping him to the ground. The last remaining drow snarls at you and steps over to the sleeping Zaza, his blade pointed immediately at her neck. "Stand back or she dies, now!"
Shalazat steps back and sheathes her daggers, holding up empty hands non-threateningly.
While sheathing her daggers, she made a few subtle hand gestures that you can interpret easily in your Shadows sign language: [i]"Your comrade, your call."[/b]
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It would be a shame if the blonde dame went to the big party in the sky, but it's the others call. She is their comrade, not mine.
Yes I'm ok with that if you guys keep him talking in the meantime. I'll roll opposed perception and if he notices you start to move, he might CDG before you move, as readied actions do.
Hadha's mind races as he tries to come up with a way out of his situation. Surely any obvious move will kill Zaza. So it must be subtle. Good. Let's do subtle
He draws upon his will, focuses as hard as he can to contain the power and prevent any sign of it's use, and insinuates himself into the mind of the Drow, silently and without a single movement compelling him to relive the last few seconds. If it didn't work, then Hadha hopes he is just confused. After all, no one is going to move, just as he said.
The drow does not notice Jackdaw's threat as he again repeats his threat. "Stay back or I will kill her!"
Seeing the state of affairs and no one taking the lead, he sighs inwardly.
Here was one of the dilemma his master had warned him.
Weighting between your vow and one of your comrades life is like choosing between your two hands. Which one will you rather see broken?
In a low but sharp voice which would be hard to hear in any other circumstance but which echoes clearly in this tense stand-off, Amari raises his voice.
"Why do you want to provoke a war between Taldar and Quadira, Drow?"
Is it a clever tactic to simply ignore the thread? Trying to off-balance the enemy by playing against expectation? Or simple the first thing that came to his mind?
The Drow's eyes narrow at Amari's question and he sneers but keeps his rapier close to Zaza's throat. "Isn't it obvious, desert-peasant? The weaker your nations become, the easier it will be for us to rise up and take what we want."
MmmmHmmm. Hadha stands leisurely by as if this decision was obvious.
The drow eyes Jackdaw warily but doesn't like his offer or Hadha's poor attempt at assistance. "No. I'll drag her with me into the tunnel then leave her when I feel safe enough. How about that!?" He keeps his rapier right on Zaza's throat.
Time for a final gamble...
"Take me instead of her.
You would need to carry her and she may wake up any moment and struggle.
I will leave my weapon here and come along quietly."
Behind his back he signs quickly towards Hadha:
<I will try to subdue him when the opportunity arises.
Be ready.
Follow us silently if necessary.>
Hadha gives no sign that he saw anything.
The drow nods. "Fine. You will be my hostage." He draws a knife and holds it to Zaza's throat and holds out his rapier. "Bring your throat to my blade and I will step away from your friend. You and I will head back into the tunnel."
The Drow leads Amari back down the tunnel with the rapier point pressed to Amari's throat. He heads around one corner with the monk then another into pitch blackness, leading the human slowly and warning him not to stumble on an uneven step from time to time.
Hadha follows silently and waits for Amari to make his move.
Having completely forgotten about the deep, deep darkness of the corridor, Amari flinches inwardly. This would make things much more difficult for him.
But try he must, that much is obvious, for he did not trust the Drow to stand up to his word. Not like he was going to anyway.
But at first he is the perfect hostage, hoping to cull the alertness of the enemy by following his instructions to the letter.
After three or four corridors, Amari will wait for another of those step the drow is warning him about, steps over it as he is ordered to and then, right as the perceived situation is resolved, stumples forward and to the side, right into the weapon arm of the enemy, such that the dangerous weapon arm is pushed aside by his shoulder!
Should he survive this reckless action, he will immediately attempt to grapple the Drow.
As Amari tries to twist out of the way, the Drow stabs him in the neck! Perhaps the doughty monk can withstand the blow?