As one of the Grey Maidens advances on Briana, Teldon stabs at her...
,
As the Grey Maiden advancing towards him closes, Teldon sneaks in one jab while her defenses are down...
,
Injured, and without room to use his spear, Teldon falls back a step and thrusts again...
,
'Sorshen' issuing judgement against her subjects, crackles a jagged stream of lightning across the shore and into Briana's cloud... the combination of water and plate steel armour proves to be near deadly as several of the Grey Maidens are silhouetted electric blue - and then, seeing his opportunity, Teldon runs one of them through with his spear...
Moving back to Zee's side, Shadlah takes aim at the closest standing Grey Maiden before drawing on the earth.
*clonk*
That's all.
Arsith's attack bounces on the Grey Maiden armor
I wonder if they really have to be maidens...It would be impolite and improper to ask.
Joanna continues to struggle against her opponents. Her blade rings off her opponents armor. Hurting and faced with several enemies, she reaches up to her breast where her holy symbol hangs and mutters a brief prayer to Iomedae. A silver glow surrounds her for a moment as most of her wounds heal.
Suddenly turning her attention to the Grey Maidens now that they have all broken through her barrier, Shadlah pulls a pillar of rock from the beach... splintering upwards, it pierces the Grey Maiden's armour and kills her outright...
...at the narrowest part of the beach, neither Arsith nor Joanna can do more than stop the Maidens getting past them. Pushing through the mist, the Maidens continue to slash and swing... some blows landing, and some missing wildly... whilst one of the uninjured warriors breaks ranks and charges Shadlah.
Zee raises her holy symbol and asks Desna for a blessing. Silvery, insubstantial butterflies descend on her and her friends, bringing with them a feeling of hope and determination.
Joanna begins to feel the pressure. She's not skilled enough to land blows on the chinks of their armor, but they are quite able to hurt her. They'd whittle away at her until they had her exhausted and surrounded. Panic wells up in her throat as she realizes that if she falls, the others would soon follow. Desperate to turn the tide, Joanna throws down the shield and takes her sword in both hands.
Teldon quickly evaluates the scene and concludes that Shadlah, Zee, and Briana are in a better position to handle the one Maiden who’s broken rank than Jo and Arsith are to deal with the other four. With a slight huff he steps into ankle deep water to see around Jo’s hip and, sizing up the closest enemy, thrusts his spear once again.
,
Arsith tries to heal Joanna, but in the furor of combat, accidentaly touches her inner thigh, then the while haired warpriest delivers a solid blow to her foe
The tide of battle, that had seemed to be ebbing away from the group as Joanna was nearly overwhelmed, turns decisively towards the friends... after the Maiden slain by Shadlah, another falls to Arsith's swinging weapon - and, between them, Joanna and Teldon start to push the Grey Maidens back.
Fanatical though, it is clear that the remaining Grey Maidens have no intention of surrendering...
Stepping backwards a little, Shadlah forms an earthbreaker - her weapon of choice by far, and swings at the Grey Maiden who had attacked her...
None of the Grey Maidens, maybe they are close to exhaustion after their initial charge on to the beach, can get past Joanna's defenses... even though her shield now lies on the floor. Indeed, with nearly half of the Grey Maidens now fallen, only the one fighting Shadlah lands a blow...
Joanna works her blade through forms ingrained through long practice. Her first slash fails to accomplish much, but her second manages to be a potentially devastating blow.
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we need to work on our tactics... we should be focusing our damage to eliminate targets faster... there shouldn't be so many of them on their feet still... I hope Jo really was prepared to take lives because with this much chaos there's certainly going to be casualities...
Teldon frowns, adjusts his grip and thrusts his new spear again.
,
Arsith Attack might be close.. but not close enough
Zee throws a Harrow card at the Gray Maiden that broke from the pack.
The card flutters back to her hand.
Joanna's blade smashes hard against another of the Grey Maidens sending her crashing backwards into the rockface and slumping to the floor... whilst Briana, producing a nimbus of flame, reaches out to burn her foe...
Teldon scowls at the prospect of wading deeper into the water but trudges on around Jo’s side to get another Grey Maiden into reach. Once he does, he studies the warrior and stabs at her...
Joanna continues to work her way methodically through the last two of the Gray Maidens facing her. Her first strike is a sure hit, but her second is as clumsy as the others have seen from her in a long while.
The tide of the battle, which had started to turn when the Grey Maidens failed to fell the magically large Joanna on their first assault, is finally with the friends... spear, sword and flame, those are the fates that befall the final warriors - each crashing to the floor as wounds and exhaustion take them...
Coming out of the shadows where she had been skulking, Helanda - a little surprisingly - has a tear in her eye, "So... this is where it ends for us. Illeosa's fall was the start of it... and now here, in thrall to a false idol, Oriana's best are finished". As untarnished as when it was handed to her, the blade she had borrowed falls to the floor.
Arsith moves and comes to Shadllah's rescue
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Shadlah stoops to pick up the fallen blade, turning it over in her hands. Blood drips from the glancing wounds on her arms and shoulders, striking the ground as small pebbles; as she closes her eyes, her skin takes on its normal sun-weathered hue and fleshy texture, the blood now falling as soft patters, the rubble which had been levitating about her ankles falling with a soft groan.
"No," she says in her low voice, fixing Helanda with stony eyes. "You remain. The question of what you will do with that fact, however, does as well."
this isn’t going to be good... Helanda’s change of heart is only going to confuse Jo more... and, while they might be able to save some of these women, many of them I’m sure are already gone... like all these ones who fell unconscious in the water, they’ve likely inhaled too much water already if they were still breathing...
Teldon trudges up out of the water and surveys the scene, uncertain as to what he should say, or to whom. Heading for Briana he asks, ”are you alright?”
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Joanna is glad for the faceless helm. No one could see her tears as she worked. She'd been blessed with the hands of a healer. Those that still live are spared from bleeding out by just a mere touch. It is those that are too far gone that tear at her, that nake her bleed more than any sword could.
She lays out the dead, taking their swords and driving them into the sand. On the hilts she places their helms. She lays them on their shields, hands upon their chests as if they are only sleeping.
Only sleeping, her stepmother's voice mocks, You killed them. You didn't even try to call for them to surrender.
Her breathing is ragged as she finishes. The armor's too hot for the hard work of tending to the fallen. Piece by piece, Joanna takes it off, revealing the cuts that still bleed and the blood-stained clothing underneath. As she works on those still alive, tears still run down her face, mixing with the sweat on her face.
"I am stone," she mutters over and over again in a mantra against the turmoil, "Stone does not bleed. Stone does not cry. Stone does not tire. I am stone."
Around her neck is the silver holy symbol she'd worn since it had been given to her by her father. Its blade is red now, having been stained with blood. Whether it was from Joanna's wounds or one of the Gray Maiden's can never be known.
"I am stone," she repeats in a soft litany, as if telling the lie again and again would make it so.
"I am stone. Stone does not bleed. Stone does not cry. Stone does not tire. I am stone."
”Me too...” Teldon softly agrees as he wraps an arm around Briana and gently squeezes, ”me too...”
Shadlah is intimately familiar with the elemental essence of stone... perhaps she’ll have something to say that’ll resonate with Jo’s current mental state...
Joanna's touch brings two of the Grey Maidens back from the brink, the remaining five having either succumbed to their wounds or inhaled too much of the water when they fell... Helanda, silent now, works with Joanna - dragging the bodies on to the beach, cleaning their faces and closing their eyes. Her face, as scarred as her sisters', is marked with gentle tears - not the desperate tears of the Iomedean's, these are tears of loss...
Finally, turning to Shadlah, she whispers - her voice laced with anger as well as hurt, "Oriana... Oriana led us to this place, shackled us in the thrall of this thing that is not Sorshen. She must see this... see the consequence of her folly in bringing us to this place - her sisters taken by 'Sorshen', those who were tortured by the hag and those who fell here today... she must see it, and feel their deaths".
Joanna does all she can for the still living maidens before taking her holy symbol in shaking hands. Silver flames lash out from her and cover everything within ten or so paces of her. The heat from them heals, but they are almost painfully hot to touch instead of the calm, steady heat that normally comes from her healing touch. When the flames fade, there are scorch marks in the sand and on the rock that form a chaotic litany of anguish, grief, and doubt in the language of the angels. Everything that Joanna was desperately trying to wall herself off from and hide was there as plain as day for those who cared to see.
She doesn't look at the marks as she stands. She sways for a moment before walking out to the far side of the landing to wash the blood from her. Halli, having hidden during the fight slinks over, her tail between her legs. She nuzzles Joanna, trying to comfort her. The paladin, small and fragile as she's ever been, wraps her arms around the wolf and closes her eyes, trying her best to shut out this horrible place.
Helanda thinks on Briana's question for a few moments, "I hadn't thought on that for too long, between being betrayed and you rescuing me from that hag, I haven't considered... a future. I can't... I won't go back to Korvosa - my face...", she runs her fingers along the harsh scars, "My face tells too many tales of my past".
With a degree of sadness, she sighs, "That will be something for the future... for now, I have but one purpose. Oriana". Pushing past the remaining parts of Shadlah's crumbled wall, she makes her way into the room where the group first encountered the Grey Maidens - and, pulling armour and a sword from a chest towards the rear of the chamber, dresses herself in steel... once more, a Grey Maiden.
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Zee assists with trying to revive any of the fallen Gray Maidens.
After Joanna's channel of holy power, she sees her friend possibly on the verge of a breakdown. She approaches her friend, kneels beside her, and puts an arm around her, rubbing her back.
"They didn't give us a choice. We tried to settle this peacefully, but they refused. In some sense, Teldon was right: The Gray Maidens were fanatics, in service to a dead tyrant, who killed a lot of innocent people during Ileosa's reign of terror. But that doesn't make it any easier. Your compassion is a strength: It's what keeps you a person, and not a monster." After a pause, she adds, " It's okay to let it out," and embraces her.
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Shadlah places a firm hand on Helanda's shoulder and squeezes, her eyes firm, her mouth twisted into a cold smile. "Then we will find her, and we will make her understand."
She crosses over to Jo, squatting to face her, and stares at her face for several tense seconds. Then, her shoulders sagging, she speaks, her voice gentler than usual, a sorrowful tone underlying her harsh accent.
"Stone does not tire," she says, looking up and staring into the distance. "Stone does not yield. Stone is uncaring.
"I never told you what happened to me before I met you. I was an adventurer before, in the company of an Ulfen man named Ragnar. He found me for the same reason you did - I had a mastery over earth and stone, and he thought I would be useful. I was, and in his group, I found acceptance. I was healthy and happy, and let my hair grow long.
"I also grew arrogant. I could spot traps, and fiends pretending to be statues, and I didn't spot the one on the way out of our last dungeon. I was at the front of the group, and I triggered it in my ignorance." Her head hangs, her chin resting against her chest. "The entrance's ceiling came down - not rubble, but mighty blocks of stone. Alessa died in front of me, and the others were trapped behind a wall I could not move.
"I tried for three days. I didn't eat or sleep - how could I, with Alessa's corpse staring at me accusingly? 'You killed me', she seemed to be saying, even in death. I wore my fingers to the bone clawing at the masonry, and I broke an ankle trying to wrest them out of the way. Even after the calls for help had stopped, I tried. I was near death and half-mad by the time I left, and Alessa's eyes had been taken by crows. The dungeon still stands, though it is now a tomb for my old friends and my old life.
"Stone does not tire. Stone does not yield." She closes her eyes, clenches her fists, and allows the veined marble texture to flood back over her skin like pigments in water. "Do not be like stone."
She stands once more, her face impassive and unreadable. "We should keep going."
Joanna looks from to Shadlah to Zee and hugs Halli tighter. The wolf trembles before the two of them, but stays by Joanna's side, a guardian against all comers.
"I don't know if I can," Joanna whispers.
Teldon frowns as he watches Jo struggle.
I suppose I'm not the only who has a hard time processing emotions... its strange, now that I've learned to read body language and facial movements, I can see everything she's feeling--the guilt, the confusion, the longing--but I still can't make any sense of it... paladins of Iomedae are supposed to find joy in righteous battle... it seems like she's chosen the wrong the patron; they say paladins are chosen by their god's as much as they do any chosing, though... the Inheritor must see something that Jo doesn't...
Teldon takes a deep breath and removes all emotion from his face. Looking to Briana he quietly replies, "I also have the resources to continue, but magic and strength of arm are not the only resources and at least one of our number may have exhausted her reserves..."
there's a chance this might backfire, but...
"Jo, I need your help for a moment," he says flatly as he approaches the young woman, "members of your order can detect the taint of evil, can't you? The first prisoner we took alive... what do you see on her?"
There is a look of determination, yet some gratitude, in Helanda's voice as she whispers "Thank you... Oriana, I don't want her dead... not anymore, I just need her to see what her folly has wrought"... and, by the time Shadlah is telling the group about the last people she adventured with, she is already in the next room finding her armour...
Halli tries to growl as yet another person gets close to her and Joanna. Though given how things have been going with two of them recently, it's more of a pup's whine. Joanna holds Halli closer and does her best to soothe the wolf's fraying nerves.
When Teldon asks his question, she nods and closes her eyes, when they open, they glow a soft silver. Her shoulders tense as she concentrates on the three surviving Gray Maidens of the ones they'd faced and Helanda. She clings to Halli like a sailor to the mast of a ship in a storm.
"Th-they are... I can't... I can't see any evil in them," she answers him after a few moments. Her voice breaks and she begins to weep quietly as she buries her head in Halli's fur.
"I can't do this," she sniffs.
damm, this would’ve been easier if there’d been an aura visible...
Teldon is careful not to show any sign of his disappointment. Placing a hand on her shoulder he assures Jo, ”then they are not too far gone... your unmerited mercy will allow them the opportunity to make a life for themselves beyond unquestioning service to a tyrannical leader. Don’t focus on those who threw their lives away for Oriana’s vision, focus on those you saved. You did well.”
Turning towards everyone else he announces, ”after all I have been through the past few days—with the ordeal of my captivity—I am I need of some real rest. The Grey Maidens have stayed here safely for some time, so it should be safe for us to stay here for a while.“
Joanna flinches when Teldon puts a hand on her shoulder, almost as she expected to be struck. She looks up at him as he speaks to her. Gray eyes, the color of storm clouds look into his, searching them to see if it the truth he speaks or merely a convenient lie. Either way she cannot tell and her gaze falls back to Halli.
Is she letting everyone down again? Is Teldon trying to help her by saying he was tired or was he really in need of some time to recover? She wants to believe it was the latter, but a small voice tells her it was the former.
What about Briana? What does she think? Or Zee? Or Shadlah? Or Arsith? She feels their eyes on her and fears what thoughts lay behind them. Do they think her a coward? Do they think her incapable, or worse, unreliable?
She can't tell, and that small voice feeds into her fear. It whispers that she isn't good enough.
It is a long time before Joanna can stand and follow the others into where the Gray Maidens had camped. Halli pads along after her, her tail low, and dragging the ground like a battle worn banner.