Torvi keeps her eyes peeled for pointy eared freaks!
Round 2
As you move forward, the bird keeps its focus on you. Finally, its patience breaks and it rushes forward. Its heavy beak clamps onto Garn's shoulder before she shakes it free.
Torvi will start a battle song.
Raging song: +2 STR/CON, +2 Will Save, -1 AC, Cannot use CHA, DEX, or INT based skills except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride), or any ability that requires patience or concentration.
Celestial Totem, Lesser (Su): Cure spells heal CL extra Hp, non spell magical healing does class level extra.
Reckless Abandon (Ex): While raging, the barbarian can take a –2 penalty to AC to gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls.
Grunting under the attack of the creature, Garnet curses herself for letting her guard down and not taking a more aggressive stance as she approached . Spitting a quick retort to Dasur, she says, "Well, that didn't work" and accepts the rage from Torvi, attacking the bird recklessly!
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attacking the bird recklessly!
Dasur shrugs at Garn's comment, a motion lost as the chaos of battle breaks out. He merely taps his staff on the ground, and a few seconds later an acidic cloud bursts from the ground to choke the fey-bird,
Snorri moves over and towards the bird, swinging his axe in a downward arc in hopes to aid in taking it down.
Garn's two blows stagger the huge bird, and a belch of acidic mist prevents it from regaining itself. The bird tumbles to the ground, its head bouncing heavily.
But your instincts turn out to be correct, as you move forward, the chameleon feathered birds appear among you, skrawking loudly and lashing out with their beaks.
Iverna dives through the great bird's legs, hoping to gain a flank when one of the tougher dwarves step up.
Erebos charges the bird attacking Dasur, showing a rare moment of self endangerment, if not quite sacrifice.
Shifting over to the newly-revealed attack bird, Garnet takes another pair of reckless swings with her mighty Dwarven Longhammer.
Snorri turns his attention to the newest threat, hoping to possibly help his fellow dwarves this time.
Garn and Snorri each kill a bird, leaving only one.
Dasur turns and casually steps out of the way as one of the additional fey-birds rushes at him with a butcher-knife sharp beak. "Ah, this is a perfect opportunity to further test the capabilities of the Worldsong." He says mostly to himself but partly to Erebos, who was nearby.
Changing his grip on the smooth obsidian to that of a spear, the wizard moves with surprising quickness; a low duck is followed by a high jab into the bird's breast, his focus on the point of contact between staff and bird.
Torvi will charge the beast facing the gnome. (rage, reckless, charge, power attack, and flank)
Bludgeon
The tip of the staff emits a jet, nay, a geyser of water, throwing both the bird and Dasur away from each other.
Round 3
Torvi continues chopping at the creature...
Torvi crushes the spine of the bird, and Iverna steps neatly aside as it nearly falls atop the gnome.
"Excellent smashing, Torvi."
Dasur is blasted off his feet by the geyser of water shooting from the staff, hitting the ground and rolling for several rotations before coming to a full stop. Groaning, the wizard starts to pick himself off the ground just as Torvi smashes the spine of the bird.
"Stronger than I'd expected, and far too difficult to control." He says to himself as bits of grass fall out of his beard. "Ah, are they all gone? A pity, I was hoping to run more tests." Is further commented before he picks some sort of multicolored grub out of his hair and tosses it aside.
"Well, shall we continue?"
Snorri is taken aback at the water blast that shoots forth from Dasur's staff which also proceeded to knock his fellow dwarf backward. "Well that was... interesting. Have you discovered a new trait from the staff, Dasur? Or was it merely serendipity paying you a visit?"
[ooc]Truly an EPIC SWING! No worries, its fine. I don't think Snorri can reach the last one even with a charge., but Garn should be able to.[/b]
As Garnet hammers flat the skull of the bird pressed against the stone outcropping, Erebos breaths a sigh of relief.
"Friend dwarves, these birds are fast. In these thick trees, probably as fast as Mithvariim on the wing. I suspect this is more than a random group of predators. These elves are known to manipulate the creatures who live here. I think they must use these birds as stalking beasts the way that my people use their cats. I believe they are attempting to slow us. We must make all haste to get out of this cavern."
"Right, let's keep moving, your Highness," suggests Garnet, nodding at Erebos before speaking to the prince. Reorienting herself, she starts moving again towards the immense cavern's wall--surely they had to be getting close.
"Right, under different circumstances, I might suggest we lay ambush to whatever elven war band sent these beasts at us, but it is clear they have somewhat of a home-forest advantage here."
Glenda barely needs to do any work; she just helps clean up once the fight is over.
"I wonder if they taste like chicken."
You spend a few hours moving in the wrong direction before the terror bird ambush, but Garn regains her sense of where you are, and you head off. Iverna moves well with you. Her endurance isn't quite dwarven, but she moves more easily than you do through the difficult terrain. Erebos can barely keep up with your pace, but between stopping frequently and then hustling to catch up, he manages.
After running for hours, you gradually become aware of a powerful rumbling up ahead. You break out of the tree cover to see the stone wall finally in front of you, still miles away, but comfortingly visible, at least.
Before you, there is a narrow but fast moving river that stretches right toward the lake you saw earlier in the day. Only a hundred feet to your left, the floor of the cavern falls away into a miles wide chasm. The river pours into it in a roaring waterfall.
Taking a moment to catch his breath, Snorri examines all the possible options. "Looks like we've various options in front of us. It appears there are various opportunities to test our climbing ability or we can move back into the trees. With my armor on I am not so confident in my ability to climb anything; and taking it off would prove detrimental if we are ambushed. Of course returning to the trees could easily set us up for ambush." Snorri ponders it all for a moment before revealing his position on their current situation. "I would have to say the trees might be our best alternative. Simply due to the solid ground that remains beneath our feet. And per any type of ambush, my confidence in each of you trumps any concern over that."
He then notices that Torvi has seemed to take somewhat of a beating with that run. He moves over to her and lays a hand upon her shoulder, healing her. "I hope that helps, Torvi." He then looks back to the others, "I welcome any and all thoughts on how you all wish to proceed forward," he tells them all.
Torvi is happy to use performance rounds to speed us up by 50%! I round of performance gets us an hour of faster movement.
Dasur glances between the roaring river and the seemingly bottomless pit he is fairly sure leads into the darkest and most dangerous depths of the planet. "We can trust the forces of Water, whose intentions are dubious at best, or risk the wrath of Air, which is surely conspiring against us as we near Dammerhall..."
He turns back towards the trees. "Let us keep our feet on the ground, where Earth may shelter and guide our steps."
+2 vs unusual stonework
It takes almost an hour of slashing through heavy undergrowth, stumbling down dead ends that lead back to the chasm, and frustrating search before you find a narrow gap through tree trunks and thick vines. You finally make your way out the other side of the tangle and continue on, skirting the edge of the chasm to your right.
Hours later, Torvi hears the heavy beat of massive wings approaching on the chasm side. Looking back across the depression, she sees in the distance three massive reptilian winged creatures, one larger than the others . Atop the largest creature sits an elven rider in white robes.
"The terrain certainly favored the flying creatures here," says Garnet. "I would rather fight them in the tunnels than in the open," she adds, crouching with her hammer at the ready beneath some dense foliage, hoping someone in the group with talent at such things camouflages her well enough for them to escape notice until they can get to a battleground of their choosing.