Barek curses seeing how far the skulls are and, letting his rage leave him, concentrates on flying upwards to attain a level closer to them.
HP: 109/109
AC (incl. fatigue): 20, T: 13
DR: 4/-
Fire/cold/electricity resist 5
Rage: inactive (2 of 21 used)
Fatigued (1 of 2 rounds)
Flight (60', good)
Round 4
Initiative 22
Barek curses seeing how far the skulls are and, letting his rage leave him, concentrates on flying upwards to attain a level closer to them.
Initiative 21
Hearing the gunslinger's frustrations, Faraldur follows after her with a frown. "Liette! I've got a potion you can take to fly up there if you need it," he shouts, fumbling around in his pack to find it. "Somewhere around here at least..."
Initiative 16
The smoking demon blinks out of existence again, taking the smoke cloud with it. The remaining demons descend about sixty feet, and send four rays of fire lancing towards Sacha.
The lion is engulfed in flame. Its fur burns and sizzles releasing an acrid scent as the feline yowls in pain.
Snarling, Liette steps close to Faraldur and begins rummaging through his pack. Glass clinks together, liquids slosh, paper crinkles and something makes a ker-squeak noise before she withdraws a frothy vial of clear liquid. "You really need to clean that out," Liette quickly jabs as she brings the bottle up to her mouth, breaks the wax seal with her teeth and tugs the cork out, spitting it to the side.
An acrid vapor that isn't coming from Sacha stings her nostrils both before [i]and[i] after she downs the potion. But the immediate sense of buoyancy and lift makes that and the burning sensation on the way down secondary. Clicking the hammers back on her revolvers, Liette's feet dust off of the ground with a swirl of air as her hair flutters and lifts on unfelt winds. Wobbling, Liette's arms windmill reflexively with the grace of a falling squirrel.
She's never done this before.
____
Viorel curses under his breath after noticing the spell seems not to have much of an effect. He then changes tactics shooting the reliable darts made of force against one of the creatures.
Round 4
Barek curses seeing how far the skulls are and, letting his rage leave him, concentrates on flying upwards to attain a level closer to them.
Hearing the gunslinger's frustrations, Faraldur follows after her with a frown. "Liette! I've got a potion you can take to fly up there if you need it," he shouts, fumbling around in his pack to find it. "Somewhere around here at least..."
The smoking demon blinks out of existence again, taking the smoke cloud with it. The remaining demons descend about sixty feet, and send four rays of fire lancing towards Sacha. The lion is engulfed in flame. Its fur burns and sizzles releasing an acrid scent as the feline yowls in pain.
Bartimaeus winces sympathetically with Sascha and charges towards the swarm of skulls. His cold iron falcion cleaves one of the previously damaged demons in twain. It vanishes in a puff of brimstone smelling smoke and ash, destroyed.
Viorel curses under his breath after noticing the spell seems not to have much of an effect. He then changes tactics shooting the reliable darts made of force against one of the creatures. The missiles strike home on another of the previously damaged fiends, bringing it closer to destruction.
Sacha roars in pain and Abigail sheds a tear, feeling her companion's hurt. "I know. Be strong Sacha. Serve Old Deadeye and unleash your fury!"
As she does so, she lets His grace spread through the feline, healing him. She directs the feline to charge and the beast hurls forward, aiming for the closest skull. Already damaged, the puma's fury shatters the bony demon into hundred shards. It crumbles into stinking ash and fades away.
Snarling, Liette steps close to Faraldur and begins rummaging through his pack. Glass clinks together, liquids slosh, paper crinkles and something makes a ker-squeak noise before she withdraws a frothy vial of clear liquid. "You really need to clean that out," Liette quickly jabs as she brings the bottle up to her mouth, breaks the wax seal with her teeth and tugs the cork out, spitting it to the side.
An acrid vapor that isn't coming from Sacha stings her nostrils both before and after she downs the potion. But the immediate sense of buoyancy and lift makes that and the burning sensation on the way down secondary. Clicking the hammers back on her revolvers, Liette's feet dust off of the ground with a swirl of air as her hair flutters and lifts on unfelt winds. Wobbling, Liette's arms windmill reflexively with the grace of a falling squirrel.
She's never done this before.
End of Round 4
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Begin Round 5
Initiative
Barek 22
Faraldur 21
Demons 16
Nathaniel 13
Viorel 9
Abigail 8
Liette 7
"It's totally organised," the dwarf protests with a grumble. "You just don't get it."
Noticing Liette's unfamiliarity in the air, Faraldur gives her a quick and dirty verbal tutorial on the mechanics of flight. "Just don't worry too much! Your nervousness probably affects your balance more than your ability!"
Initiative 22
Barek flies upward at angle towards the demons.
Initiative 21
"It's totally organised," the dwarf protests with a grumble. "You just don't get it."
Noticing Liette's unfamiliarity in the air, Faraldur gives her a quick and dirty verbal tutorial on the mechanics of flight. "Just don't worry too much! Your nervousness probably affects your balance more than your ability!"
Initiative 16
The demons concentrate on Bartimaeus, the flames in their eyes swirling and catching his gaze.
Bartimaeus begins to feel very friendly towards one of the Hatethralls, and then he shakes the feeling off.
"They are trying to use charm magic! Kill them as fast as possible." Viorel shouts out a warning after regonizing the spell. He then starts to move closer to the creatures to make sure the creatures will not be out of his range. Viorel then readies himself to counterspell if the demons try that again.
Swallowing dryly, Liette listens to Faraldur's words and tries not to focus on how awkward it is to see the ground disappearing from under fet feet, tries not to even really look down so much as focus on the flaming skull creatures up ahead. With them squared in sight, Liette bursts forward and upward through the air, her white jacket smudged with dirt flaring out behind her as she does.
Leveling her gleaming revolver up, Liette comes to a stop in mid air and manages to hover successfully, her jacket's long trail swishing around her calves in the wind. Gripping justice in both hands to steady her trembling hands, she hones in on the zipping skull in her iron-sights. Tracking the skull's erratic movement, Liette squeezes the trigger with the report of a single gunshot, sending a bullet streaking through the air at the skull, narrowly buzzing past Abigail.
_______________________________
(AUGH MY KINDGOM FOR IMPROVED CRITICAL)
+
"They are trying to use charm magic! Kill them as fast as possible." Viorel shouts out a warning after regonizing the spell.
Initiative 13
Bartimaeus gives a bestial grin and glides over to the skeletons. "They tried; they will not try again." Raising his blade, he has at them. His falcion clangs against the rock hard abyssal bone thrice, but still the fiend persists on this plane.
Initiative 9
Viorel starts to move closer to the creatures to make sure the creatures will not be out of his range. Viorel then readies himself to counterspell if the demons try that again.
Initiative 8
Sacha, still feeling the searing in his skin, shifts his position slightly to try and slip behind them. As he does so, he concentrates his attacks on the nearby demon, while Abigail continues to heal him. His front claws rake deep gashes into the sides of the undamaged demon-skull. The cracked open bones reveals roiling fire inside.
Initiative 7
Swallowing dryly, Liette listens to Faraldur's words and tries not to focus on how awkward it is to see the ground disappearing from under fet feet, tries not to even really look down so much as focus on the flaming skull creatures up ahead. With them squared in sight, Liette bursts forward and upward through the air, her white jacket smudged with dirt flaring out behind her as she does.
Leveling her gleaming revolver up, Liette comes to a stop in mid air and manages to hover successfully, her jacket's long trail swishing around her calves in the wind. Gripping justice in both hands to steady her trembling hands, she hones in on the zipping skull in her iron-sights. Tracking the skull's erratic movement, Liette squeezes the trigger with the report of a single gunshot, sending a bullet streaking through the air at the skull, narrowly buzzing past Abigail. The round richochets off the demon Sacha just raked, but seems to have little effect.
End of Round 5
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Begin Round 6
Initiative
Barek 22
Faraldur 21
Demons 16
Nathaniel 13
Viorel 9
Abigail 8
Liette 7
Barek closes the remaining distance to one of the remaining skulls and swings his heavy blade.
HP: 109/109
AC: 21, T: 14
DR: 4/-
Fire/cold/electricity resist 5
Rage: inactive (2 of 21 used)
Flight (60', good)
Barek closes the remaining distance to one of the remaining skulls and swings his heavy blade. He cleaves one of the remaining skulls in two.
The last skull sees that it is well and truly f*cked. Bartimaeus, Abigail and Barek all hear, "You guys suck." in their heads before it tries to cast some kind of spell. The flurry of attacks from the crusaders surrounding it reduce it to a flutter of cinders.
End Combat
"Uh," Liette mumbles, looking at Bartimaeus, then over to the mostly furless Sacha. "I think I'm fine," she remarks with one brow raised, beginning the process of reloading her revolver from the one shot she fired as she slowly descends back down towards the wastes. "Not really keen on things that're flyin' like that, though. Guess we did our best, all things considered."
As her booted feet touch down, Liette shakes off the feeling of disorientation from flight and walks over to Faraldur, snapping her revolver closed and holstering it as she does. "Thanks for the lift," she comments, slapping the dwarf on the shoulder. "Would've been nothin' but a target without that help."
"I think yourself and Sacha took the brunt of the attack." Viorel notes to Bartimaeus. He pats the side of his horse's neck. "I would say more often than not it has been physical attacks that we have encountered. If you mean just the elements, those have been pretty rare. But considering how much the demons can tolerate them I would not be too surprised if we encountered any of them."
Faraldur winks at Liette. "Always gotta have a trick up your sleeve for moments like this. Just wish I could do it a bit easier like the rest of 'em can. That's what you get for being self-trained, I s'pose."
The dwarf then answers Abigail. "Demons tend to be the least resistant to fire out of everything else - so I guess it's not the most common weapon for them either. It's a whole mix of things out here though. They'll use anything at their disposal to wreck havoc."
Barek touches down by his bow and picks it up. "I am unharmed, but then I spent most of this encounter trying to get near the bloody things. Perhaps I need to train more in aerial maneuvering, or some way of travelling long distances in the blink of an eye."
"Faraldur, I've got t'show you how t'use that rifle of yours better. Trust me, you'll be a walking engine'f destruction if you can master that." Circling the dwarf, Liette glances briefly at Sacha and Bartimaeus, then back to Faraldur. "Maybe get you a big pepperbox rifle'r something, let you pump out the shots at long range. It'll make up for my needin' t'close in on these fellers."
Slapping a hand on Faraldur's shoulder, Liette makes her way over to Bartimaeus. "You need a hand?" Liette says in partial jest, letting a pulse of positive energy illuminate her right hand for a moment.
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Bartimaeus smiles slightly and shakes his head. "Thank you, but no. The creatures merely burnt the parts of me that cannot be touched by your healing magics."
Raising a hand, he continues, "Nathaniel's, however..." and touches himself on the chest several times, scales returning to their normal blue lustre.
Watching with curiosity for a short time, Liette slowly nods her head in understanding when the scales begin to mend. "I've resigned myself to the belief that there's some things in life I'll never understand," the gunslinger notes with a nod to Bartimaeus before walking past the summoner and over to Abigail and Sacha.
Liette's nose rankles at the scent of burnt fur, but it doesn't impede her approach. "How's Sacha faring?" Liette asks, observing the attention that the great cat receives from its master. "If you need help with his-- her-- uh, it's injuries... just let me know."
Arching a brow in surprise, Liette scrubs one gloved hand at the back of her head and looks genuinely surprised. "Man, when I signed on with the lot've you, I never would've figured you'd be this tough." Grimacing, she turns from Abigail and starts sauntering over to the fragmented bone pile of one of the skulls. "Guess the 'Wound better watch itself..."
"Pretty stellar," Liette admits with faux arrogance, buffing her nails on her jacket with a crooked smile. "So, what's the plan from here? We keep headed in the direction we were going in? I've got plenty of ammunition left," she says, motioning to her revolvers as they're holstered. "But I know some'f you get drained faster, channeling arcane might or what-have-you."
Covering her holsters with her jacket's long tail, Liette walks back over to Faraldur. "Owe you a drink when we get back to the keep, thanks for getting me airborne."
"No need to change the plan, good to go here." Viorel replies stroking his horse's neck again. "Not smart to take jabs at people mastering fire when you got enough gunpowder on you to blow a keeps door, my lady." The mage notes with a smirk acomponied by a chuckle. "Wiseass cracks aside I still got twenty or so spells in me so no need to pause on my account at least."
The darkness is interrupted by the arrival of pain. Pain from the whole of their bodies. The dull burning ache of deep bruises and fractured bones from head to toe is supplemented by the stabbing white hot lances shooting out from their wrists and ankles. Cracking open sand encrusted eyes, Hallf, Sigmund, Crissor and Kenan find themselves in a bright place. After the initial tearing up and blinking, the landscape resolves itself into a desert. They find themselves nailed to X shaped wooden crosses by their wrists and ankles. Gnawing hunger and searing thirst, along with the blistered sun burns on their skin tell them they've been there for a while. There is dried blood dripped down their arms onto their chests and the pain from the crucifixtion is nearly unbearable. They are naked except for their smallclothes, their gear lays in a jumbled pile at their feet. Peitry's dismembered arm is also laying there, clutching the Asmodean mace they had found in the temple where Raina defeated them.
The crosses are set into the sand at one end of a canyon.Ahead of them the buttes stretch away into the distance. The orange-red sand is studded with small thorny shrubbery in small patches. There is a dust cloud at the far end of the canyon coming their way, and with it the echoes of distant noises.
09/04/4712 10:45
Faraldur goes to retrieve his errant mount while Abigail prays for her spells. When Abigail has finished praying, Faraldur still isn't back. It doesn't normally take him this long to retrieve his mount. Bartimaeus flies up to get a better view of the surroundings, he intially doesn't see anything but after flying outward in a widening loop he sees a dark speck against the sand. Descending for a better look, he finds Faraldur. The old dwarf is lying sideways in the sand, clutching his chest. He is dead. There are no wounds apparent on the body, and its eyes are closed. His face is set in an expression of peaceful acceptance. As Bartimaeus moves to touch the corpse, an apparition appears. The spirit is in the form of an ethereal, radiant dwarf, its eyes shining like the sun. It is dressed in ornate robes, and has immensely complicated braids in both its long hair and beard. It shakes its head firmly at Bartimaeus, before reaching down and touching Faraldur's body. Both the outsider and the corpse dissapear in a column of golden light.
-----------------------
After dealing with Faraldur's passing the group resolves to press on in their explorations. Following their predetermined path, they contiue their explorations. The desert landscape changes little throughout the afternoon. Cacti, scrub and sandy rock become the norm. They complete a couple of north-south sweeps, while at the same time heading ever further eastward.
09/04/4712 14:00
While heading south on one of their latest path the group finds themselves funneled into a canyon by a range of huge buttes. Their size makes them more resemble mountains, but their curious shape is that only found in the desert. The canyon appears to be broad and clear, winding straight through the range. No doubt a mighty river once ran here. Or perhaps it was just the madness of the abyss that rent the rocky spine asunder. Either way, it's the only way through that they've come across. Heading up into the pass the more perceptive among them see the sunlight flashing off something on the ground at the other end of the canyon. There are four X shaped objects silhoutted against the horizon next to the gliterring mound.
_______________________________
Now mounted on Faraldur's horse, Liette hasn't said much since discovering the dwarf's passing. The circumstances of his demise and also the presence of something not pit-spawned gives the gunslinger some confidence that at least he is at peace. It's cold comfort, ultimately.
Riding beside Barek, Liette offers the wound-blooded man a brief look, then a slow nod of her head. They hadn't spoken much since she joined the team, and now with the mortality of each member highlighted by Faraldur's passing, Liette is left to wonder if she should afford him that, or if it would be better simply leaving him a stranger. Bartimeaus' blue silhouette in her peripheral vision is something of the opposite, and it tugs Liette in two different directions emotionally.
The x-shaped silhouettes in the distance cause Liette to sit up straight in her saddle, then swat a hand at Barek's shoulder, motioning with a nod of her head towards the horizon. "The hell d'you make'f that?" She drawls, glancing back at Bartimaeus and Abigail to see if they see it too.
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Bartimaeus freezes in place as the elderly spirit vanishes with Faraldur's remains. His only sign of frustration being a fist slamming into the ground momentarily, he quickly raises his free hand and scans for magical traces, seeking, hoping, desperately wanting to find traces of illusion or teleportation or anything that would indicate that what seemed to have passed had not and Faraldur would return to the group and...
Nothing.
Standing back up, he regards the single, unremarkable blot of land where his companion had once lain. Bowing his head, the tall creature closes its eyes, remembering.
When they open, its eyes have turned green.
"Faraldur... we never met directly. But wherever you have gone, you left this world unchanged by this hellish place, and left demons fallen with your shot in their chests. They will never harm anyone again. Thank you, and go well." Nodding finally, the creature turns away and examines itself as if seeing it for the very first time. Hesitantly it steps forward and strides into the air, and returns to the group, landing with a THUD.
"Faraldur... Faraldur is gone. I found him fallen, with no wound and a smile upon his lips. A richly robed dwarf with eyes like stars bade me leave him, touched him, and vanished. I found no trace of magic."
After each person speaks, he continues and... Barek, Viorel, I am back- Nathaniel, I mean. I am sorry for leaving you after what happened with Rosa and the rest. I was weak; it will not happen again." Turning to the newer members of the group, he bows his head. "Greetings; I know you knew this form as belonging to as my dearest friend, Bartimaeus; I hope you will not object to this form now being returned to me, Nathaniel. I have seen you through his eyes and I would consider myself honored to travel with you."
---
Frowning, Nathaniel nods to Liette. "I see it." Turning to Viorel, he asks, "Might I borrow your spyglass for a moment?" Using it, he flies up a few feet and peers through it at the Xs.
"I never would have thought such a celestial presence would appear in the Wound... I hope that it was exactly what it seemed."
------
Barek grunts. "Aye. Something is there. Best we prepare for anything can happen in this place," he says, gripping his bow.
News of Faraldur's death hits Liette harder than she'd expected. Perhaps because it was so sudden and without the warning of battle, perhaps because she and the alchemist had just started getting along and becoming friendly with one-another. Silent while Bartimaeus explains the situation and the unusual circumstances, the gunslinger nods slowly and swallows a dry lump down in her throat.
Staring at her feet, Liette can't muster words, only thoughts about the dwarf and his assistance and good-natured attitude. He'd willingly gone along on this mission, and now he's another casualty of the worldwound's voracious appetite for life. Nathaniel's emergence from within Bartimaeus is what stirs Liette back to the present. She considers the demeanor change with uncertainty and -- more notably -- wariness. She knew what to expect from Bartimaeus, but not from Nathaniel. In a way, it felt like losing two people.
"It's good t'finally meet," from Liette comes across as a little hollow, all things considered.
Viorel tries to hide any outward show of emotion to the passing of the dwarfm without much success rather clearly apparent that he mourns for his passing. "Proper wake at the keep." He mumbles to himself. Nathaniel's appearance to the surface pulls the mage back from his contemplation on what might have happened to Faraldur. "It is good to have you back, one of these days I would like to hear how the relationship of you two actually works."
Viorel hands the spyglass to Nathaniel. "I see four, but apart from that I can't make out what. Hopefully Nathaniel can aid us in that part." He pulls on the reins to stop the horse so he doesn't have to divide his attention. He tries to estimate the distance to the figures in the distance in case they reveal to be enemies, not like they have encountered much of anything positive in the wound.
Fatigued
Kenan looks around and trying to find out, if his fellow crucified are alive too.
We must free ourselves. If something finds us here, we won't survive it.
Under sounds of pain, Kenan tries to relieve one of his hands.
Hallf awakens silently, the pain kindling to a core of quiet fury as he surveys his sorry situation,
"Gaharatt angarr delat horg anun genthrak ragan!" He rasps, unable to shout his vow with his throat parched and dry as old leather.
Tears stream down his cheeks cutting trails in the dust as he weeps for Yarra and for his fallen comrades, but in truth mostly for the tyrannosaur who he had raised from a babe, but he turns to Kenan as best he can unashamed,
"I try change," he says beginning to shirt...
Kenan tries to slip the spike between his bones, but it has a broad flat head designed to make such a maneuver impossible. Hallf however shrinks and twists until his wrists and ankles part around the spikes and are sucked into his rapidly diminishing torso. After a few moments there is a viper on the ground in front of the cross where he had been nailed. The cloud of dust at the other end of the canyon seems to have stopped moving. Something big, blue and reptilian is floating slightly above the ground where it was and as the dust clears, the crucified crusaders can see several more figures there, tiny with distance.
With the aid of the spyglass Nathaniel can make out four nearly naked humanoids on the crosses. The glittering pile appears to be a bunch of equipment. As he observes them, the figures seem to be stirring. Then one of them shrinks and changes its form into something small, slipping off the cross as it does so.
Remaining in the form of a tiny serpents Hallf summons three small air elementals and orders them to free his friends as he resumes human form and scrabbles around in the pile of items at the base of his cross before slipping a pair of crystal lenses into his eyes and peering at the approaching creatures.
"This is bad. Can you hide us? Maybe I change and carry you away?"
Hallf can see four mounted humanoids and the big flying blue reptilian, beyond that is impossible to see at this distance.
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Nathaniel drops down to the group. "Four humans strapped to crosses next to what looks like their equipment; one of them turned into a snake and back and then summoned some air elementals to free the rest. It might be a trap, but it seems a poor one." Passing the spyglass back to Viorel, he continues "I'm going to fly close to them and use my message spell to say hello. Back soon."
Zooming up, he flies up high then straight towards them, stopping 170 feet away, then casts Message at all of them.
"Greetings; do you need help, and do you serve demons?"
Hallf who after freeing his comrades has pulled on as much of his equipment as he can shouts back in heavily accented common,
"I am not demon, but have been long passed out after defeat by deceiving demon. These have image of friends and seem so, but lies are strong here. You claim to be Crusaders? Then tell me the prices you have gained for your trophies, and we shall do the same. I am find trust too small, but I think few demons know this."
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Nathaniel winces and covers his ears protectively. "This spell means I hear what you say, there is no need to shout. We are crusaders; I name myself Nathaniel. As for our prices..." Nathaniel rattles off the demon head/reward ratios they've been told. "Why did the deceiving demon leave you all alive?"
Now that Nathaniel is close, he can see how badly injured the crucified men are. There are three humans and a gnoll. So far only two of them seem to be awake. Nathaniel recognizes Crissor and Kenan as members of the rival party that he, Rosa and the others met their first day out of Clydwell Keep.
Kenan would recognize Nathaniel, but he's never seen his Eidolon before. When they met Nathaniel was disguised as a half-elf.