"The one time I want them to think with the wrong head... Men! Utterly hopeless! The drow may be onto something with this matriarchy thing."
Faeleen grabs the overly-amorous drow from the throat and puts all of her effort to keeping her at arms lenght.
Seeing Faeleen casting, Jokum grins, thinking things are turning in their favor as their allies join the fight. Seeing the result of her spell, he simply sighs in aggravation and yells, "Quit playing with your new lover and help find the rest of them. See if that wagon has gone invisible or teleported elsewhere."
A sudden flash of light causes spots and afterimage to overwhelm his vision and he stumbles slightly, crying out in surprise. Hearing words of power, he focuses on those and tries to determine the specifics of the spell. No! They can't be allowed to escape. Alarmed by what he's hearing, he focuses his attention on the casting as he steps between his two companions and quaffs the potion he had in hand. Pointing in the direction where the male voice had shouted, Jokum mentally directs his sphere to move there.
Grease - 4 minutes
Flaming Sphere - 2 rounds
Blind - 1 round
When the drow eldest female casts her spell, Jokum concentrates his mental energy on understanding her gestures, seeking comprehension on her motives. As you gaze upon her spell taking shape, time seems to slow. Your perception sees everything about you as your twin minds dedicate themselves to a single purpose.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Jokum. You start, turning about you. Beleste is frozen in place, mid-scream as he exerts frustrated energy into his next swing. Faeleen is grappling with her drow "assailant". The Ravener's eyes are wild with bloodlust, and Grrazz is mid-stride as they leap across the field to the child Amelia's defense.
Your attention is focused by the magic. "Yes, beautiful..." you find yourself saying, in response to words that came from your own lips. You realize that you're blinded. You didn't notice before - what you were seeing was with your arcane senses, not mortal eyes.
As the eldest drow priestess disappears, you see the magic threads of her own will and the will of her Goddess weaving about her and pulling her...to the northeast? Indeed, though the energy is difficult to track, and chaotic, you do see a definite indication of the drow female disappearing in that direction as you stare at the magic taking shape before you.
Meanwhile, Trirena fends off Faeleen's desperate grappling and plants a big sloppy kiss on her lips. The drow males gasp briefly at their superior's display of overt lust, becoming distracted... and gaining a -2 to AC as a result.
The Ravener steps forward to claw one of the drow males. More blood!
Grrazz, with the bundle that is Amelia on thier back, shifts slightly away from said 'Ravener'...
Grrazz, your incredible speed takes you to the girl's spot where she stands frozen by fear JUST when the monstrosity reaches you. Howling and gibbering in rage, punctuated by the occasional wild hiss, the monstrosity charges you.
Grrazz still has a turn to counterattack or flee. Carrying a child on your back safely with no saddle and making sure she doesn't fall off makes all tasks slightly harder, though.
Jethop attacks vigorously. He lashes out with a claw, which is easily blocked and gets him nicked by a rapier in the process - take damage. Growling, he strikes again with another claw and uses his forward momentum to lurch forward and bite down, hard. Ahhhh...hot, satisfying drow blood gushes into your mouth like biting into a Gusher. The Ravener's claw pierces the drow's slightly cooked flesh and punctures his heart, spraying more blood everywhere. The drow sags, limp, in the Ravener's grasp.
Watching this happen in growing horror, the final drow male tries to run. Beleste and Jokum, you can hear his retreating footsteps, so you know he ran to the east, but you can't see so you don't think you could catch him without stumbling and falling on your faces.
Trinera's turn is spent whispering sweet nothings to Faeleen as she struggles.
Initiative order:
Trinera
Beleste, Jokum, and Faeleen
Monstrosity
Grrazz and Jethop
1 remaining Drow Male
Grrazz plan doesn't change. Girl on back and thence get to Faeleen.
Still in awe of the beautiful weaving of the magic, Jokum takes a few shor steps towards the sounds of the fleeing drow and gestures dramatically towards the retreating sounds. A ray of cold energy springs from his hand and rushes towards the fleeing drow.
Beleste will lash out with his gigantic longsword at the fibers binding him to the ground with all his force.
Freeing himself, he'll take off after the escaping drow.
Jokum's ray goes wide!
Beleste's speed: I assume 30 feet because your comment about the armor?
Drow's speed: 30 feet
First round you only have a move action - he gets another card ahead of you, putting him 3 cards - about 90 feet - away - but the chase is on!
First round
Distance: 3 cards
No checks needed for Beleste - sprinting across an open field.
However, the drow's foot catches a tree root and he tumbles to the ground (failing his check by more than 5!)
Results: Next round you will have only 2 cards remaining before you catch up.
The Monstrosity gets an AOO on Grrazz: and DC 14 Fort if it lands.
On Trinera's turn, she realizes what a fool she's been and snarls, trying to escape Faeleen's grasp. Does Faeleen want to continue grappling her on her turn? Because that's going to affect Trinera's actions.
Initiative order:
Trinera
Beleste, Jokum, and Faeleen (retroactively - everyone else has acted this turn)
Monstrosity
Grrazz and Jethop
1 remaining Drow Male
Grrazz snarls in pain as the spider/bear's pointy bits find flesh.
Grrazz comes to a skidding stop besides Faeleen with Amelia clinging to their back.
And with a baring of fangs and a growl, gives the Drowess the impression that being with the group is probably a longer term prospect than being against (And hence probably 'food') for the group.
*Note: Grrazz will also be keeping a very close eye on how close the monster bear is looming and is ready to accelerate to safety.
The drow priestess Trirena looks terrified, but the Monstrosity nearby gives her courage. She might quail if all her allies were stripped from her, though - and only the Monstrosity remains.
2 drow males dead, 1 ran, 1 female teleported away, 1 female engaged with Faeleen.
Figuratively engaged.
We still need to figure out what happened to that carriage as well. Last I knew there had been an elderly drow woman and a male drow child in there.
Faeleen takes a step away from Trinera, and decides that the drow looks pissed off enough that she's likely to rip the poor tiefling apart in a moment's notice.
"Hey, it wasn't me!" she says, then realizes the lack of credibility in her words, and quickly casts some kind of spell. "Hey, it absolutely wasn't me!"
Much better.
Trirena's eyes unfocus slightly as your spell jumbles up things in her brain. She glances around at the nearest other thing. she cries at Grrazz! "You must be the love-beast! How else would you know I'm into furry porn!!!" she screams in rage and summons her divine wrath, gaining in strength.
Initiative order:
Trinera
Beleste, Jokum, and Faeleen
Monstrosity
Grrazz and Jethop
1 remaining Drow Male
Beleste, on your turn you enter the forest. DC 15 acrobatics or Reflex check to avoid tripping on the gnarled tree roots.
Beleste attempts some fast foot work but the tree roots get the better of him.
His vision clearing, Jokum sees Beleste tearing off into the forest. Sparing only the time to shout, "I'm going to help track down the runner. Try not to die while we're gone." With that, Jokum runs off into the forest in pursuit, pulling a flask of alchemist's fire from his bandolier with his tail as he goes.
Grrazz shuffles sideways to put Smoochy Drow and Krazy Kat between themselves and the fur-train barreling down upon folks position.
At the Drow's exclamation, finger pointing and accusations Grrazz simply looks blankly at her and...
"Wuuff..?"
The Ravener moves over to thr female drow and uses his corrupting touch.
She takes damage and must make a Fortitude save of 14 or be sickened.
Seeing that the situation is again in control, (i.e trying to kill Grrazz instead of her) Faeleen turns her attentions to the summoned monstrosity that is probably still trying to kill her along with the others. Drawing her bow as she does so, she makes a small sidestep and lets a magically-charged arrow loose towards the big monster. (No, not Grrazz.)
The monstrosity AND Trirena are now focusing on Grrazz. The monstrosity charges the love beast and hisses aggressively, charge-bite time!
Initiative order:
Trinera
Beleste, Jokum, and Faeleen
Monstrosity
Grrazz (for previous round) and Jethop
1 remaining Drow Male
The chase: At this round the drow is 2 cards, or 60 feet, away from Beleste. They have equal speed.
On the drow male's turn, he flees into the forest. However, this point of entry into the forest is a haven for pixies, sprites and other nasty fey who try to maliciously lead outsiders astray with illusions.
He failed the check by 5 or more, so he isn't actually able to progress. He wanders around within a 20 foot square in the forest, completely unaware of his surroundings. At the end of this round Beleste is still 2 cards away due to tripping on a tree root, Jokum is able to catch up to Beleste. 2 more cards of chase distance remain.
On Trirena's turn she will swing at Grrazz as well. Her god's unholy power flows through her veins, causing black lines to spring up against her flesh and her eyes to blaze with a wild red light.
Grrazz ignores the pathetic swing of the 'Buggy-bear' though Smoochy Drow's metal 'kiss' to the snout stings a bit.
In response, Grrazz takes a 'five foot step' between Krazy Kat and the Ravener before poking their tongue out at Smoochy,
"Pthththbbbbbbbbbbbbb!" :P
Jokum, catching a brief glimpse of the drow fleeing into the woods ahead, puts on a burst of speed as he rushes past Beleste in fierce pursuit. Stay focused on the task at hand and don't let yourself become distracted.
The Ravener steps behind the priestess. It was a mistake ignoring me.
Faeleen maneuvers herself to a better spot and takes another shot at taking a shot at the big monster.
Twang!
"Stop moving, you stupid little @£%&?§½!"
Initiative order:
Trinera
Beleste, Jokum, and Faeleen
Monstrosity
Grrazz (for previous round) and Jethop
1 remaining Drow Male
The monstrosity loses interest in the furry one - it does nothing but run, and it knows it's faster than it is. One of its eight eyes catches the Ravener landing a painful bite on its master and it moves to intercept him, its fangs extending from their furry pedipalps to attack.
Jokum scoffs at the primitive illusions of the fey, which completely fail to impress him. He moves forward a square.
Following his comrade's lead after extricating his hoofed foot, Beleste merely growls and pushes the magic of the pixies aside.
You're only one card distance away from the drow male, and he looks over his shoulder in a panic as he's running from you. Next round's worth of checks will determine if you catch him or if he eludes you into the deeper forest.
Next turn, chasing him through the forest, you see two slightly divergent paths. One leads dangerously close to a fetid bog with a stench coming off it that almost staggers you from here, and one across a primitive wooden bridge that looks ready to fall apart. You'd have to make some nimble footwork to make it over. Attempting a full-round chase action means you must face and overcome both challenges, but it means you apprehend the drow next turn. Making a standard action allows you to get to his square, buying you one more round of chasing, but you need make only one of the two checks.
Trirena feels the Ravener's charnel touch affecting her painfully, but resists its greater effects. What she is less able to resist, however, is the feeling of pain she gets from the pig-boy's sharpened teeth digging into her shoulder. You feel her collarbone break in your jaws. Screaming with incoherent rage and fury now, lost in battle, she swings her mace at the Ravener's face.
The Ravener dips its head back, the drow priestess' mace swings close, oh so close, but not close enough for her purposes.
The spider beasts' bite however does pierce the Ravener's ice cold flesh, but its poison does not slow the monster.
Having tasted the priestess' blood once, the Ravener wants more.
Exactly, Jokum.
"Aaargh! Wait, wait! I surrender! I'll dismiss the beast! Please take me alive!" Trirena begs, her fanatical fervor leaving her in her moment of mortal peril. Jethop, your choice - the drow priestess' life in your charnel claws. Thumbs up or down?
"Kabriri, hear me, I offer this death to you, a faithless follower of a spider demon. Feast. Be pleased. Give me power."
The Ravener savored the irony of sacrificing a priestess who had not doubt sacrificed so many.
Trirena's death is messy and quick, and the Ravener's breathless muttering prayers are unsettling for all who hear them. With the absence of any friendly drow nearby, the monstrosity winks out of existence. All that remains to be resolved is the daring chase taking place even now, in the forest to the east...
Grrazz, having out allies between themselves and their enemies, begins to move away from the impending fight and heads off in the direction the true quarry has taken.
Mindful of the bundle clinging to the fur of their back (Which will come in extremely handy whence the group must coral any sea-turtles) Grrazz moves at a 'slower' pace than normal...Which for the furred teifling is still easily 100 odd feet per movement phase.
Exactly, Jokum.
Jokum scowls as he looks at the path ahead, seeing that he might well be able to cut off his quarry before he made it deeper into the forest. As he redoubles his effort into a burst of speed, he thinks, He may well lose us if he gets any real lead when the vegetation gets thick. I've never been a more then passable tracker. Jokum finds the thought odd, given he was a city boy before he was captured, but pushes the dissonance from his mind as he puts on a burst of speed.
Jokum, you passed both saves - giving you two cards of movement. Since you're only one card away, that's one card of movement and 1 full-round action.
When the drow sees you nimbly jump out from behind a tree, in FRONT of him, you see his eyes narrow in fear. Covered in mud and sticks from his earlier wanderings, he nonetheless stands his ground and readies his rapier. You can tell from his expression and his stance that he expects death.