The group crosses the stream without incident, leaving the fey and his unseen allies behind them. Inire easily takes the lead, fading into the trees and easily picking her way through the snow covered woods. The trip for the next half-hour or so is quiet, though the snow seems to be getting heavier as you get further and further into the forest. The trail begins to angle up and follow a rise. As she nears the top, Mouse hears someone talking. "Shut it Kail. We'll get our pay when we finish with the lady."
Mouse listens for just a moment, long enough to overhear the two, then slips back towards her allies. Once she does return, slipping between the trees to Nathara, then waiting for her allies to converge on her, she speaks in a quiet voice.
"It looks like we've made it to them. There are at least two near the top. I can try to scout out more if you like, or we can try to simply get the jump on them." she says, explaining what little she does know to the others. "One of them is named Kail if you want to try to use that to our advantage."
Nathara seems torn about the situation, gently puts the bow away again and draws the Captain's sword. "I would very much like to know more about the tactical situation, yet it comes with the risk of being discovered and loosing the element of surprise... I prefer to strike hard and fast, dispatch those outside the cottage the fast as we can and then move forward before they can fortify their position. Tiferet, Eirikr and I engage straight and draw their attention, Evelyn and Morgraine over the left, so we don't stand in the line of their attack and you, Inire, over the right, try to either fall in their back or find another way in once their attention is drawn. I just need to cast two spells right before we attack. What do you say, Tiferet?"
While Nathara tries to maintain her focused composure the demon in her very well awake, but so is her concern for her comrades and for Lady Malassene. Her gleaming red eyes twitch from one to the other in her dodged position and the grasp around her sword is firm.
Inire nods to Nathara and sets off, swooping around to the right flank, and disappearing into the forest as she goes, trying to gather what information she can, even though she can't exactly communicate it. Understanding the situation would make a huge difference in how to handle things. If they had the right equipment, simply letting Vosi disable the outer guard with his prismatic spray would do... but they also didn't understand the situation fully. And either way, a scintilating burst of bifrost was just as likely to alert those indoors as them calling for aid.
Regardless, she moved off to the side and hunkered down... waiting for her allies to make their appearance, even as she braved moving more forward than she had before.
"We will swoop upon them from every angle and cut their retreat. Precise and lethal." Crouching in the snow, she looks like a predator poised to strike. "I like it."
After one day spent trudging through the snow, they've finally reached their target. The image of the massacre of Lady Argentea's retinue flashes briefly in her head. The time of retribution has come she thinks as she slowly makes her way uphill. Her blood was screaming for battle, for justice.
The low conversation between the bandits continues as the party begins maneuvering around them. "Yur' an idiot Gavin. Those fey things ain't gonna pay us when they can just eat us whole when we're not useful anymore. You seen their damned leader, haven't you? When he came to the lodge."
The first voice replies again. "I seen him. Big nasty brute. Can't be all that bright though. And Rohkar's been working on those things he's got in the attic..."
"Don't remind me. It's unholy the things he gets up to."
A third, deeper, voice emerges from the direction of the bandits. "Hey, quiet you two. I heard somethin'."
"Yur' imagining things Haldor. Nobody in the woods but us and the damned fey."
There's a long silence, then a loud grumble. "Alright. Guess those fey have me on edge. I don't like workin' with things that are too keen on stabbin' us in the back."
The first voice laughs. "That's why we stab them first."
Vosi growls, his wings almost buzzing as he flutters near Nathara's head. "Nasty traitor humans. Let Vosi help kill them. Kill them all."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
'Haldor. Rohkar. Gavin. Kail' she thinks to herself, irrationally giving her enemies names. That was a difference she would hold on to; these men had killed an escort to a man, animated their bodies, and then left them as a trap for anyone who would come looking to give aid. And they had never bothered to learn a single name.
She was thankful for them talking, really, it helped her to understand that they were people, and not monsters. People who had chosen the life they were living. They could have done a great many things to better the world... but instead, they were here, destroying the world around them, one person at a time.
Specifically, they were human. They were people. If she killed them, she would be cutting a life short, but the opportunity of knowing what sort of people they were left them more monstrous than the fey in her mind. The fey were what they were. These people had never strayed from this dark path.
With fingers that shook a little, Morgraine loaded the small crossbow she kept as a sort of protection on the road. The bolt locked into place and she licked her lips.
Why am I so nervous? The idiotic question entered her mind and she immediately scoffed at it. Because you're far from home, loading a crossbow, and about to enter battle?
It would be her first time to knowingly walk into a fight, and her nerves were playing havoc with her; memories of her brush with near death while entangled with the draconic creature earlier doing little to calm her nerves.
Leveling her crossbow upwards, she followed Evelyn to the area the two of them were to approach from.
Nathara lowered head as the others spread out to the sides. The plan was rolling. Subvocally she prayed: "Everlight, give me strength in my decision, determination in combat and let me know the moment for mercy, so that I have the resolve to spread your light, rather than the cruelty of war." She took another few breathes. If she had made a bad call... but this was not the time to think about it.
She had a little smile for Tiferet - she was looking forward to fight by her side - and encouraging nodd to the honest and upright hunter Eirikr and his proud wolf Ashen. With a little, melodic incatation in elven and a circular wave with her left Nathara slipped in the cover of the shrubs into attack position.
Female NG Elven Tiefling Magus (Spelldancer), Level 1, Init 3, HP 9/9, Speed 40
AC 21, Touch 13, Flat-footed 18, CMD 16, Fort 2, Ref 3, Will 2, CMB +3, Base Attack Bonus 0
Claws +3 / +3 (1d4+3 / 1d4+3, x2)
Longsword +3 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Masterwork Captain's Sword +4 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Chain Shirt (+4 Armor, +4 Shield, +3 Dex)
Abilities Str 16, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 11, Cha 10
Condition Spell Dance +10 ft movement rate, +2 AC vs. Attacks of Opportunity, 10 rds
Shield, 10 rds
Tiferet approaches slowly, cautiously, before stopping approximately 60 feet from their targets – that's how far she's willing to push her luck. She looks around, spotting her companions already moving in position, like a well-oiled trap ready to spring. This time there's no wyrm lurking in the snow, no undead abomination waiting to catch them unaware. This time they're the predators. Now it is only a matter of luring their preys in.
EDIT
Eirikr nods his head and follows after Tiferet and Nathara. At first, he reaches for his spear--but then he remembers that he left it lodged in the snowman's chest. He still had the sword that Nathara had given to him, though, so he unsheathes it, gripping it tightly in both hands. For a moment, his stance is awkward and unready but then he closes his eyes and concentrates; images flash in his mind of himself ready for battle, and soon he is holding the sword as well as if he had been born to it.
Once everyone was in position and if no one was alerted Eve would tell the fey to attack the bandits only when they got close enough so they couldn't run then she would start to stumble forward into view of the bandits clenching her side.
"Help I've been attacked! The woods are full of fey!"
Eve followed their lead sneaking towards the bandits ready to attack.
Morgraine takes her position near Eve and aims her crossbow while Mouse and Nathara slip through the trees like ghosts, easily keeping quiet and moving swiftly to get on either side of the blissfully unaware bandits. Even Tiferet, with her heavy armor, is able to get into a reasonable position without alerting them to her presence. Eirikr attempts to join the two women creeping though the trees, but he stumbles and his hand catches a branch, tearing it from the tree with a resounding crack. Instantly, the bandit's conversation stops. "What was that?" One of them comes in the direction of the trees, searching for the source of the noise.
Eve puts her plan into action just in time. She starts to stumble forward into view of the bandits clenching her side. The man approaching the trees stops, surprised to see a rather attractive woman out in the middle of the woods. "What in the name of..."
"Help I've been attacked! The woods are full of fey!" Eve cries out interrupting his train of thought.
Vosi waves his hands a pack of silvery lights appears in the air around him as he begins to glow, appearing out of the darkness as if he's chasing Eve down. With a few words, Tiferet adds an inane chatter of voices, like a pack of fey following behind him.
"Blood and thunder! The fey are attacking! Kail, run and get help! The damned things have double crossed us!" The youngest looking bandit nods and turns to rush down the path.
As the fey grab the men's attention, Inire flies in, easily swooping across the ice and snow to close the distance between herself and their foes... unfortunately, even though she had psyched herself up to view these men as monsters.. she draws her blade short, trying to abort her strike for the man's vitals at the last moment.
I am the forest. I am the blade. I am dance. the incantation echoed through her head, driving her fear and doubts, the prospect of killing another or be killed, to the back of her mind as she sprung from her cover and the flow of a single feathery motion carried her straight towards her enemy.
Full Round Action: Charge
Attack bonus: 0 base + 3 strength + 1 masterwork + 2 charge
Female NG Elven Tiefling Magus (Spelldancer), Level 1, Init 3, HP 9/9, Speed 40
AC 19, Touch 11, Flat-footed 16, CMD 16, Fort 2, Ref 3, Will 2, CMB +3, Base Attack Bonus 0
Claws +3 / +3 (1d4+3 / 1d4+3, x2)
Longsword +3 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Masterwork Captain's Sword +4 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Chain Shirt (+4 Armor, +4 Shield, +3 Dex, -2 Misc)
Abilities Str 16, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 11, Cha 10
Condition Spell Dance +10 ft movement rate, +2 AC vs. Attacks of Opportunity, 10 rds
Shield, 10 rds
Charge, -2 on AC until the start of her next turn
Eirikr curses quietly to himself in wolf tongue after stumbling over the branch; when he realizes that he's alerted the bandits--at least Evelyn's plan to trick the bandits had worked regardless. Tightening his grip on his sword he charges towards the bandits, Ashen following closely at his feet before overtaking him, both of them howling as they do.
Initiative:
Evelyn
Vosi
Bandit 1
Morgraine
Inire
Tiferet
Nathara
Eirikr
Bandit 2
Bandit 3
Morgraine's heart beat faster as events started unfolding before her. Pale-faced, she hesitates with reluctant indecision until one of the bandits yells to go get help. She sees one of the bandits turn to run. Just a youth... couldn't be more than my age..
The crossbow swiveled towards the runner, her finger tightened. There was a click and a slight jolt. The bolt hummed from her weapon.
Then her eyes opened....
Morgraine makes her surprise shot... and misses by quite a bit.
Once the bandits started to run Eve dropped the fake and makes to attack.
Evelyn jumps forward at the bandit that had moments before been trying to help her and slashes out with her sword. Her attack is awful and misses wildly, but she manages to pull her blow just enough to keep from hurting herself or leaving herself open.
Vosi draws his tiny bow and aims at the same bandit, hoping to have more luck. Unfortunately, his aim isn't much better as he tries to fire past Eve's body.
The bandit hastily draws a short sword from his belt and tried to counter-attack. He is clearly still thrown off by the situation and his attack is no more successful than Eve's
Morgraine is up!
Trying again, Mouse slips forward with the blade, aiming for a vital, but despite her attack being clean, even her blade seems to disagree with this course of action, refusing to bite deep as she drags it across the man's side.
Morgraine is up!
She could not even tell where the bolt had gone! But she still glimpsed the bandit, further away now. Cursing, she fumbles for another bolt, nearly dropping it to the snow before finally getting it into place. Frantically she pulls the crank back and reloads... puts the stock of the bow to her cheek and fires again.
Morgraine's shot goes just a bit wide. The bandit flinches sideways as the bolt nearly buries itself in his chest, but he manages not to get struck.
Tiferet is up!
Axe in hand, Tiferet strides toward her companions, eager to join the battle. Her bare legs power through the snow and up the hill as she screams her challenge, the ballad of an ancient dwarven king who rode out alone against the brigands who had kidnapped his wife and daughter, slaughtering them to the last man.
His axe went up and his axe went down
and one by one they fell.
Their blood was soaking his very crown
As he screamed his deathly yell.
They begged for mercy, they drowned in gore,
His axe yet thirsted for more.
_______________________________________________________________________
Tiferet's song resonates in Nathara's body and the demonic fury streams like liquid fire through her, but the dance gives her balance. Motions flow into each other as she fights and her hand opens for a spell between the strikes.
Female NG Elven Tiefling Magus (Spelldancer), Level 1, Init 3, HP 10/9, Speed 40
AC 20, Touch 12, Flat-footed 17, CMD 16, Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 3, CMB +4, Base Attack Bonus 0
Claws +4 / +4 (1d4+3 / 1d4+3, x2)
Longsword +4 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Masterwork Captain's Sword +5 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Chain Shirt (+4 Armor, +4 Shield, +3 Dex, -1 Misc)
Abilities Str 18, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 19, Wis 11, Cha 10
Condition Spell Dance +10 ft movement rate, +2 AC vs. Attacks of Opportunity, 8 rds
Shield, 8 rds
Raging Song
Nathara embraces the power flowing through Tiferet's song and cuts deep into the bandit with her blade. He manages a cry of pain and seems like he can barely stand, though he doesn't fall immediately. However, the follow up burst of acid misses him by a bit, failing to finish him off.
Eirikr is up!
Eirirkr feels Tiferet's song in his head, its rage building with his own that had been welling up in his stomach; his howl grows louder as he charges towards the nearest bandit to attack, but his swings are wild and uncontrolled in his fury. Ashen, unaffected by the song but snarling all the same, seems much more directed in his efforts to attack the bandits.
Bandit is tripped if this attack lands
Eirikr and Ashen both charge to aid Mouse. Eirikr is significantly less accurate than he hoped and missed by a great deal. Ashen on the other hand, goes straight for the throat and rips into the man's flesh with gusto. His strong jaws drag the man to the ground, leaving him flailing as he tries to stop himself from bleeding.
The bandit tries to regain his footing and manages to leap back to his feet without letting the wolf take another chuck out of him. He takes the best defensive stance he can as he tries to protect himself from more pain.
The bandit fighting Nathara simply turns and runs, trying to get away from her biting blade. However, he barely makes it ten feet before his injuries catch up with him and he tumbles to the ground unconscious.
Evelyn is up!
Evelyn takes a swing at the wounded bandit and was much more accurate this time.
Evelyn's blade cuts into the bandit and injures him. Vosi grumbles and draws back his bow, firing another shot at the bandit. His tiny arrow impacts the bandit and ice crystals begin to form on his shoulder where the arrow struck.
The bandit manages to shake off the wound and looks around at the situation rapidly turning against them. He turns and ducks away from Evelyn's reach, desperately keeping his defenses up as he runs down the trail.
Morgraine is up!
Morgraine grimaced as her second bolt whizzed past the fleeing bandit. For a moment it looked as if Evelyn would cut him off, but he managed to break away from her attack.
He can't warn the others... they may counterattack, or worse make off with the prisoner... She reached for another bolt, then made a look of disgust at the clumsy weapon she held. Her eyes narrowed, gauging distance as she began to hustle forward to keep her quarry in range. Already the words and phrases began to form upon her lips as the power, so much fainter than she once wielded, welled within her. She stopped, stretched out her hand, finger pointing crookedly...
"Teper vy Son!" she says, as if passing sentence. A great weariness began to settle upon the fleeing man, as if in an instant, a week of nights had passed without rest...
The bandit manages one more step before the sheer exhaustion slams down on him and he stumbles forward. To tired to even catch himself, he hits the snow and is instantly asleep.
Inire is up!
Mouse moves tactically to help cut the bandit off, but stumbles over a rock just poking out of the snow, as she tries to drag her blade across the bandit's exposed flank.
There's nothing of Inire's precise, accurate motions – or even Nathara's graceful dancing – in Tiferet's attack. Her leg muscles burst as they propel her toward the battle. As a vicious predator, she lunges at their one standing foe, her body arching forward, brute-forcing her way through his defences. Her weapon comes alive with arcane energies just as she lowers it on the surrounded bandit.
_____________________________________________________________________
Mouse steps sideways and gets the last bandit trapped between her and Eirikr. However, his watchful guard manages to save him from her blow. Tiferet on the other hand, charges straight through his guard and slams her ax into his chest, nearly cleaving him in half in one blow. He crumples without another word.
Combat Ends.
With the two bandits at the original site of the attack under control Nathara sets after the bandit who fled. She skips through the forest like it would hardly exist, using her sword to maintain balance whenever she skips a fallen tree or shrub.
Female NG Elven Tiefling Magus (Spelldancer), Level 1, Init 3, HP 9/9, Speed 40
AC 21, Touch 13, Flat-footed 18, CMD 16, Fort 2, Ref 3, Will 2, CMB +3, Base Attack Bonus 0
Claws +3 (1d4+3 / 1d4+3, x2)
Longsword +3 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Masterwork Captain's Sword +4 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Chain Shirt (+4 Armor, +4 Shield, +3 Dex)
Abilities Str 16, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 11, Cha 10
Condition Spell Dance +10 ft movement rate, +2 AC vs. Attacks of Opportunity, 7 rds
Shield, 7 rds
Raging Song
The bandit at Nathara's feet is sleeping, a strange contrast to the ultimate violence echoing around them, even though it not a exactly a peaceful slumber. She looks around. Her comrades seem to be well, whereas their opponents are either dead or entered the twilight between life and death.
The rush of combat falls of Nathara and the sword in her hand becomes heavier, slower. Der the dance of blades end and leaves a young elf maiden in a sea of blood behind. The consequences of violence catch up with her, in all their bitterness.
She suppresses a sigh, briefly seeks to make eye contact with Morgraine, giving her an asking look and then kneels down to the surviving bandit to carefully disarm him without waking him.
Nathara pulls a shortsword and a dagger from the man's belt and a shortbow from his back, along with a quiver of a dozen arrows. Her touch doesn't even cause him to stir from his enchanted sleep.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
With a sickening sound of ruptured flesh and broken bone, Tiferet pulls her weapon from her dead foe's chest. A quick glance around confirms her companions are victorious and unscathed – a sure sign of a well-orchestrated ambush, but also and more importantly of the prowess of their fortuitously assembled squad. Looking in front of her, she spots Nathara already running ahead, her legs nimbly sprinting over snow and root alike at a speed Tiferet could only envy.
Looking at the bleeding and unconscious bandit nearby, she's in the process of summoning a healing spell when the energy building up in her left arm suddenly flickers and dies. Patching him up, and for what? We can't in good conscience let a murderer loose once again, and handing him to the authorities... Well wouldn't that be the quickest trial Southern Taldor has ever seen. Not that she has ever given too much weight to such things, either. Perhaps that's the lesson her parents wanted to teach her. You see people executed every day, and yet not a single judge to be found on a battlefield. Between warriors, things are done cleanly. You don't have the luxury of a dusty tome freeing you of the guilt of having killed a man. It's between you and him her father would tell her, after an intense sparring session. And if he's dying, or in pain, you don't put him on his feet just so he can walk to the nearest gibbet. That's cruel. Cruel and coward.
His voice still echoing in her mind, she raises her weapon, and lets it fall over the prone figure at her feet. "You lived a thug, but you die a warrior" she states soberly. A clean death. A painless death. A good death.
Still, the uneasiness lingers.
Mouse winced as she heard the crunching of bones, and torn flesh, standing stock still for a moment. She breathed a sigh of relief as she turned around... just in time to see Tiferet's axe fall. Despite her words, Inire takes an involuntary step back, eyes wide, mouth twisted into a grimace. She lets out a single ragged breath, her chest moving quickly as her heart rate speeds up.
After a moment.. the adrenaline rush subsides, and she manages to stop being a cowardly Mouse for a moment.
She slips down into a kneeling position, and slips her backpack off, pulling out her journal, flipping to the very last page... she begins to scribble.