Tom looses his arrow the literal second lady Ainsworth gives the go ahead. He will make it a quick kill for the sake of efficiency more than anything else.
Without an ounce of emotion or anything that might resemble shame Tom will look from his kill to the group and say “There now he gives us all his goodies instead of just some”
Seraphina gasped in shock when Tom opened fire on the Goblin. That seemed a lot more than had been needed. "Could we have just taken him up on his offer if you wanted something, or left?"
Tom shrugs “possibly, in truth I didn’t really want much. My concern was more that he could attack us from behind to take what we have or worse give us away to a dangerous foe whether intentionally...” he then gestures at the trap the goblin fell into “or unintentionally. Either way I gave him a chance, he chose to be difficult and I find that in general people who chose to be difficult will continue to be difficult.”
Not likely, He was stuck and if he could escape he wouldn't have needed help. That aside, no simple thief would attempt to take on a largwr force alone, especially one already clearly on edge . Let us keep moving, lest we forget there is a dangerous murder on the loose. Abel keeps his usual calm demeanor, although internally this irks him. Tom as officially caught his eye and is being watched
Seraphina glowered, but said slowly, "We had best not waste the opportunity, no."
”Oh I see... Stephen Percival Hightower at your service. I usually keep track of the vigilantes we have in Calweld. The Nameless Ghoul being one of them. I’d love to go into detail, but this isn’t really the time, don’t ya think? Here’s the part you oughta be concerned with: The Ghoul? He only has his ‘hunts’ in territory under the Calweld house. Which this building happens to be in. We get a couple blocks down and we’re home free. So, what say you my boys and I keep heading down?” Stephen indicates to the party of his own.
The light is at least enough to show a better glimpse of his ‘boys’ in question. One plate covered orc-blooded fellow. The one with wings, and big enough to fill most of this not-inconsiderable hall. A lizardfolk from the mainland, the arboreal kind. He just seems to be in an unidentified uniform and possessed of a relaxed demeanor. And still hovering off the ground next to him is a bearded human man. He might be the source of that wind behind them, and he looks like he’s growing impatient. Stephen is the closest to Jean, about 50 feet away.
So far, not a peep from Lady’s direction.
After brief debating among the majority of the party, they press on. Partway down another flight of stairs the group spots the next disturbance in the night.
The Ainsworth party catches the tail end of a chase; a strange hair-covered creature darts into a door at the landing between the floors as another of the clockwork guard dogs slams against the door. It splinters the wood, but soon spots prey easier to reach.
Roll initiative! Also please place yourselves on the map. You should have editing access.
"Got other matters to see to," Jean said, waving away the offer and resuming his route if none of the Hightower party moved to stop him, "You'd be better coming with me and rallying with the rest of the no- *ahem* lords and ladies so we can move in force. Last I saw, the Ghoul was lurking back the way I came and going toe to toe with a rather vicious caster."
Round one begins, and Seraphina is the first to react to the steel beast.
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Seraphina
Hound
Tom
Abel
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What the hell was with that dog? Seraphina began her usual dance, boosting the two more dangerous members of the party and Kal. Tattoos glowed and the light of flowed as Seraphina moved, leaving those damned shoes on the ground behind her. Without her armour and shield she was far too squishy to fight, but at least she could enhance the others.
Seraphina sends aid to her allies with a magical grace.
It appears this hound is more than willing to scramble and clatter its way to Seraphina and attempt to take her down.
And much like a trained dog it latches on and pulls Seraphina to the ground.
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Seraphina
Hound
Tom
Abel
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Tom is up! Keep those buffs in mind.
Furthermore he’s quite young and of minor note to his house in comparison to Lady Ainsworth. He hasn’t made much of a name for himself yet, and the Hightower family is known for their signature reckless decisions. These guards look like overkill for someone of his station. At least the human is capable of spellcasting, and the half-orc seems to be some kind of mutant. Chances are good he had an extracurricular source for a detail like this. A source that could be contacted?
”He’s down that way you say?”
“And engaged is it?” The massive half-orc one speaks now, and with a noticeable accent. He has to be from the mainland if plate armor wasn’t enough of an indicator. The two of them exchange a look before rushing down the hall with the other two in tow. They seem intent on capitalizing on this information. The most threat they intend to Jean is bowling him over out of enthusiasm. And they just might too, even the flying human man seems almost Jeans size.
Tom starts to prepare to use his divine magics but when Seraphina’s aid washes over him he decides to save his abilities for later.
I will reposition myself so that there is a clear shot at the mechanical dog and say “Seraphina I don’t know the kinds of things you are capable of but these things are especially vulnerable to lightning if you are capable of it!”
Abel seeing the Mechanical dog next to him, turns with his Psychic enhanced fist, taking a more bladed form. He unleashes a couple punches out
They were being fools but Jean did not have time to try and keep fools out of trouble right now and let them go. He started clanking along his original route.
"Lady, you still with me?"
Seraphina attempted to escape the dog, rolling to the side before standing and resuming standing - if she got away.
”I was going downstairs but I hear fighting there too. How far from your party are we?” She doesn’t exactly stop for an answer, rather keeps pace ahead of Jean.
Tom finds a clear chance to put an arrow in his target, guided by not just his skill, but the magic of his ally.
Abel strikes true as well with his empowered slices.
Seraphina tries to scramble to safety as the security bot continues to pressure the healer...
And in its frenzied state the hound tears Seraphina down. Wounded and bloody she falls to the ground as the merciless machine turns it's attention to the next clear threat it sees: Abel.
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Seraphina
Clockwork Hound
Tom
Abel
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Things are starting to get dicey, This might call for some additional strategy.
Abel adopts the crane stance to stand defensively, but his concentration on defense throws his attack off.
Tom seeing his newly regained ally drop to the ground (and I assume the buffs drop with her) he will assess the situation. And make a split second choice. Rather than loose another arrow he will choose strength in numbers. He takes a running slide to get near enough to Seraphina to touch her. He places a hand on her shoulder and chants in draconic.
As Tom chants the skin on his hand blackens and embers begin to float into the air as if the part of his hand that touches seraphina is a bonfire. A flame pulses from his hand washing over seraphinas body and rather than harm her as one may expect from the flames, wounds slow their bleeding and she heals.
Paging Seraphina.
Wincing from the damage, and glancing at Tom for a moment, Seraphina nodded her thanks and added her own healing to his to get herself back to full health.
The semi-rhythmic clattering of metal grows as Jean approaches the landing to the next floor down.
Tom resuscitates Seraphina enough for her to heal her own wounds further.
The metal beast scrapes and clamors to latch onto Abel
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Seraphina
Clockwork Hound
Tom
Abel
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Jean will enter combat at round four. You can roll initiative now.
Having healed the healer Tom will take something similar to his previous position and take another shot at the mecha monstrosity.
Hearing the sound ahead, Jean shouldered his rifle and made sure the weapon was ready and charged. "Eyes forward."
Abel will get up provoking the Aoo, and keep fighting defensively to keep the AC up
Jean, with all the subtlety of a man in heavy armor with a very large gun, shoulder checks the door open, clocks the situation, shoulders his rifle and fires. The gun discharged with a sharp crack and expelled a plume of almost searing steam that smelled of ozone. The large caliber round, propelled by mixed accelerants, was neatly on target for the hound's center of mass.
Seraphina jumped slightly at the sound of the shot, but kept dancing in a more defensive fashion to make up, a little, for her missing armour and shield.
Full party combat
Abel sweeps up from the ground too quickly for the hound to reach him before he's back on the defensive. His strike misses when the hound reacts to Tom’s arrow. Then, the doors burst open as Jean fires a thundercrack from the other side of the room. With that a sizable dent punches into the machine.
The hound resumes ferociously snapping at the collected Abel.
Jean
Seraphina
Clockwork Hound
Tom
Abel
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Hey, this doesn't have to be split into spoilers anymore!
Tom notches an arrow and draws it back taking aim. He waits patiently for his opening and looses another arrow.
Seraphina continued to defend herself, and keep all her fingers and toes away from the things rather sharp jaws.
Abel will keep fighting defensively, though he's on deaths door so to speak.
Tom and Abel continue to assail their target, but the metal hide of the beast proves tough to crack.
Jean worked the lever on his rifle, expelling the spent casing, and sighted on the hound again. It was not one of his special rounds but getting hit with it would probably be no fun regardless.
Jean thunders out another shot at the iron hound. It’s erratic, violent movement comes to a sudden halt. Even out of commission with holes and dents, the Clockwork hound remains upright on its four legs. As if it was never really destroyed.
”Oh wonderful, are you here to join us once more?” Lady Ainsworth calls over to Jean, though apparently distracted with a pocket watch the moment the dust is settled. For his part, Mr. Savard breathes a sigh of relief.
Tom will look to the returning soldier type who he has had very little contact with since joining this group. “Oh good, the numbers are finally starting to lean in our favor.” Tom will then arc an eyebrow as he gets a better look at Jean “look like you’ve been on the wrong side of a stampede. Rough night?”
Jean worked the lever of his rifle again, slammed home a fresh charger and put one last round into the hound's head for good measure. He finally deigned to respond after that.
"Yes."
"We've got a groups of vigilantes roaming the building nominally led by a figure known as 'the Nameless Ghoul'. It looks like they've seized control of the building's infrastructure... including security measures," Jean pushed the remains of the hound over with a boot. "It's a good thing you didn't take the elevator, that would be a fantastically foolish idea right now. We need to keep moving."
"Do you want healing?" Seraphina asked as she eyed Jean's slightly battered form. "Does anyone else, for that matter? That thing had some impressive jaws." Remembering that avoiding the elevator had seemed wise simply due to power loss, she added, "Did anyone else try to use the elevators?"
"Hmm? Oh, no, this is someone else's blood." Other than a more intense than usual annoyance at the world, he was physically fine.
"After a fashion. I can report that dropping the Ghoul down an elevator shaft did not seem to stop it. Shooting worked though." As if to illustrate, Jean worked the action on his rifle again.
it is good you arrived when you did, the help was much needed. abel is bleeding from several areas and barely standing
Seraphina nodded to Abel, moving over and healing him.
"Anyone else?" the healer asked as she poured Positive Energy into the wounded Undine.
“I can also” Says Tom as he waves a wand around. “You know, if you want to hold onto limited resources. This one just costs gold and if it came down to it I could pick up another.”