Haru lets her song end when the creature disappears, and pulls out her bow, following Kavell. "We won't let him get away!"
At a surprisingly lackluster pace Gergo went down the stairs, his grey eyes looking about his surroundings, his ears trying to listen for anything besides the wooden platforms creaking with each step he made.
"He used Dimension Door -- he's somewhere nearby still, it doesn't have the range of a teleport!"
"Probably right below us, let's move!" The shield she'd conjured may have been giving her a bit more confidence than it should have, following Gergo downstairs.
Friday follows after the others.
Zaiobe wordlessly takes up her bow and follows the party downstairs.
As the party descends the stairs into the study, they hear a bombastic voice bellowing from the hallway beyond.
Looking into the hallway, the reek of rotting food & bird droppings strikes with overpowering force. A long dining table sits in the middle of the room at the end of the hallway, heaped with partially eaten animal carcasses and several thick eggshells. Standing around the table are several bird-men, some of them in the middle of picking at the carcasses. At the head of the table is the shifted Kikonu, bleeding profusely from several closing wounds. The burn scars on his body remain unhealed.
"Your beloved sister, guardian of words and knowledge, has conspired with our conquered victims to bring outsiders into our home! They seek to butcher you and cast down all you hold dear. ESPECIALLY ME!" Kikonu's burning eyes glare straight at Gergo as he steps into the hall.
"And there they are. DESTROY! THEM! ALL!"
Quickly moving ahead of Gergo, Valeria unleashed another arc of fire from her hand, trying to catch as many of the crowmen as possible.
The lead bird-man takes the full force of Valeria's flaming magic. The other two seem to cluster behind him, using him as a living shield. The smell of rotting carcasses turns into one of cooked carcasses, but the overall effect is the same.
Kikonu bursts out laughing as the bird-men get torched. "Oh, come now. It's only a little fire." His eyes shift to Valeria and he points a finger at her, causing an orange orb to appear on his fingertip. He walks behind the bird-men on the opposite side of the table...
"THIS is how you shoot fire at someone!"
The orb shoots out from his finger, coalescing into a ray of scorching fire!
The ray hits Valeria squarely in the chest, setting her ablaze and bringing her down. Though her planar blood manages to shield her somewhat from the fire, the pain causes her to black out all the same.
"Courage, friends, we shall not falter! Birdmen, think this man your friend? He is using you just as he used Zaiobe, used the hobgoblins!"
Haru begins to sing a song of battle , while pulling out a potion of healing in case they need it to heal Valeria.
Any doubts he had about the nature of this Kikonu disapatted as his flames struck Valeria and his laughter at the bird men's fate under her fires.
He moved forward and knelt by the fallen tiefling gently caressing her face as healing energies flowed through his hands. His gentle touch stabalized her
cover us! He called out to his allies in fact using his own body if need be to shield Valeria.
No word was uttered by the usually energetic warrior as he passed by the fallen Valeria and Kavell who was doing his best to save her life. The look he gave Kikonu was still that of utter condescension. The bird men did not even seem to register as a threat to the blond...still when one of them was in range he swung his axe horizontally in its direction, the look on his face was an annoyed one, almost as if he was swatting a fly out of the way.
"Who else is weary of living?" The tone of the wild man's voice was loud enough not to be considered a whisper, but that did not detract from their coldness and cruelty.
Snarling as he sees Valeria fall Friday moves up to wordlessly attack the crow man.
Gergo brutally cuts down one bird-man while Friday buries his spear into another one's guts. The bird-man starts flailing and clawing at the spear, still clinging to enough life to fight on.
Ishgha storms out into the room and bangs his sword against his shield. "Your time is up! The deaths of my brothers in arms WILL NOT GO UNAVENGED!"
Kikonu just rolls his glowing eyes and contemptuously waves a hand. The bird-men CAW with bloodlust and move to the attack! One races forward, trying to claw at Gergo's face... except it didn't see Kavell's glaive lying in wait to carve open a bloody wound in its hide!
The bird-man's claw scores a glancing blow across Gergo's brow.
The impaled bird-man SCREECHES in pain and tries to claw madly at Friday's face!
Alas, its aim is wildly off, in no small part to the spear still lodged in its guts.
Another one eyes Ishgha with hunger and throws itself at him, pressing itself against the wall to avoid Friday's spear.
Ishgha's shield takes the brunt of the claw.
Another bird-man races off down to the southern hallway. The *clack-clack-clacking* of its talons echoes off the cobblestone floor. The last bird-man stands confused next to its master.
Friday quickly pulls the spear out to get into the corby running past him before returning it to it's previous bird.
Stay prone for a moment longer please Valeria, let me get more of Shelyn's healing touch into you. I dont think he likes you much.
He began lowly still doing his best to shield her form from the enemies.
Friday cripples the attacking bird-man and finishes off the other one.
Haru nocks an arrow and lets it fly at Kikonu.
Haru's arrow flies past him and skips off the wall behind him.
Gergo barely reacts to the small would courtesy of the bird man; his eyes looking past it, in Kikonu's direction. The straight line that were his lips slowly began morphing into a frown Dull and annoying...this is the demon she spoke of? He's only good at running A long exhale was all the bird man heard before Gergo's axe came down, its own exhale a howl that had been followed by the sound of blood spilling.
"This is boring..." Snarled Gergo, his low volume voice inhabited by an almost foreign disgruntlement.
Gergo cuts down another bird-man with contemptuous ease.
Ishgha swings his sword at the bird-man trying to claw at him...
...and carves a bloody wound across the bird's chest! It retaliates by swinging and clawing madly at him, pushing itself off the wall!
The bird's talon catches Ishgha on the chin, but he shakes it off in time to block the second claw!
One bird-man comes racing around the hallway to the south, making a beeline for the prone (and now awake) Valeria, while the other one mindlessly leaps at Gergo in a fit of rage!
It falls upon Gergo in a flurry of claws!
One claw strikes Gergo in the face and the other flies over his head.
Zaiobe steps out into the hallway to the south, her eyes glowing with power. She locks eyes with the oncoming bird-man and points at it...
The bird-man squawks in terror!
Coughing as life returned to her, Valeria did what she could to shut out the pain (made easier by Kavell's magic) and shock (adrenalin helped). Taking stock of the situation, she quickly unleashed a barrage of energy missiles at the crowman engaging Gergo.
The bolts of force slam into the bird-man's face, causing its head to snap back.
"This is boring..."
Kikonu's laughter abruptly stops. "Oh, BORING, is it? Then let's put some colour back into things, shall we?"
He flaps his wings as hard as he can, sending a cloud of extremely bright, glittering dust at the clustered warriors!
Gergo & Kavell are able to shut their eyes in time, but Friday's vision goes completely white as his eyes are blinded with searing pain!
With a flash of motion, Kikonu unlimbers the chained sickle around his belt and crows in glee.
He moved quickly trying to keep his eye on the battle and on miss Valeria frowning at the singed clothing and red skin from the burn. He quickly removed the wand at his belt and activated it using it to further remove the vestiges of the damaging fiery magic.
Miss Valeria if you could perhaps not be so quick to expose yourself, I believe that peice of filth has marked you as a serious threat.
He as he went from crouching to fully standing. It was strange to him this feeling he had now after having to heal the very terrible burn of the exotically pretty maiden tiefling or not. It was like his ancestry was calling on him to ... he shifted slightly a more determined gleam to his solid blue hued eyes.
Friday blindly thrusts his spear...
...and hits nothing but air.
Gergo pulled the axe to his right side swiftly, letting the shaft intentionally travel along a path that would lead to the bird man's head, he then stepped forward with his weapon gripped in both hands and let the axe give yet another howl of air as it flew towards his foe's body at a diagonal arc.
Gergo's axe buries itself in the bird-man's neck, but despite the grievous injury the beast is still fighting on. Their intelligence may be in question, but not their tenacity.
Ishgha gives a contemptuous snort and swings his sword at his crippled opponent...
...and he seems to be toying with the beast as he slices off a chunk of its leg.
The bird-man flails at the hobgoblin...
...and in a last, desperate burst of energy, manages to viciously claw and maim Ishgha's face as it collapses and dies. The hobgoblin is taken off-guard by the sudden assault and reels backwards, bleeding profusely.
Gergo's maimed bird-man gurgles and madly claws at him...
...but barely misses Gergo's face.
The frightened bird-man squawks in terror and flees into a room to the south, kicking the door open.
Haru moves closer to gain a better range to Kikonu.
She decides to try to ensnare his mind and cause him to throw himself on her companions' weapons.
If he falls to the spell, she'll whisper to Zaoibe, "I'm filling his mind with lust for you, so that he'll be open to our attacks."
Haru's spell hits the oni, but he doesn't even so much as blink. The magic slides off of him like water.
Valeria climbed to her feet as she assessed the situation. Most of the bird-men were dead, Kikonu was a fair way back and any shot with her flame arc would hit friendlies as well. A quick glance down the corridor had her consider a flanking action from the oni's feathered flunkies, so switching to her crossbow presented as many risks as benefits (nevermind the time it would take to load the bow after readying it).
Instead, figuring it the easiest way to remove an obstacle, Valeria made the most of the creatures' weak-minded nature; reaching into its mind, taking hold of its perception and senses and giving them a slight... twist. For a brief moment, the bird would feel something akin to an intense vertigo mixed with the slight falling sensation one feels when on the border of sleep and wakefulness. It wouldn't do anything on its own, but it would keep the bird from attacking her allies.
Valeria's spell doesn't seem to have had an effect on the bird-man. Perhaps it's because of how horribly it's been wounded.
Kikonu's eyes turn wild and furious as Zaiobe comes to the fore. Without even saying a word, he points a finger at her and conjures up another orange orb. The orb launches from his fingertip as a ray...
Zaiobe sees the incoming flaming ray and tries to duck aside, but it flies over Friday's shoulder, catches her wing and burns it. She hisses in pain.
Kavell moved quickly from Valeria's side forwards blatently ignoring the injured possibly Dying Birdman in front of Gergo. He moved forward enough to stand in front of Ishgha and use the wands energies to help close some of his wounds.
Your time is running out Kikonu...
He said pratically baiting the creature to attack him but 'not' paying attention to him as he healed up the hobgoblin.
Some of Ishgha's claw wounds are promptly closed up by Kavell's intervention. He looks over at the paladin and nods at him.
Friday interposes himself between Kikonu's ray and Zaiobe's body, taking the brunt of the burning fell power. He manages to clear his vision of the glittering powder and strikes Gergo's target down.
It looks like Kikonu's out of minions to throw away.
Where Gergo has stood was there was nothing but air. Already the armored warrior was half way towards Kikonu, the axe he carried was resting on his shoulder, his approach was not careful or cautious, simply quick...especially considering that his armor should be slowing him down. Gergo's eyes didn't steer away from the red demon, the shine of arrogance still persisting within them, which was assisted by the frown of discontent that were his lips.
The sound of metal screeching against the floor penetrated the air; The blade of Gergo's weapon slid across the floor as it made its way to Kikonu and rose at a diagonal arc, putting an end to the screeching and causing the air to erupt in a roar.
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Realizing their foe was resistant to magic, Haru tries a different tactic.
"Zaiobe, let's try to disrupt his spells," she whispers to the Harpy. "Loose your arrows when he begins to cast!"
Gergo's axe bites into Kikonu's flesh hard enough to slice off one of his wings. This time the oni doesn't even scream--he's too shocked by the pain to move.
Ishgha seizes the moment and races around the table, swinging his sword to try and catch Kikonu in the back...
...and brings the oni down with a slash to his back. "It is DONE."
A pool of hot blood starts forming underneath the dying demon, sizzling on the cobblestones. He twitches several times, his body still trying to knit its wounds together...
He moved, standing up upon the table and bringing his glaive almost glowing a hot white with holy energy down into the form his eyes aglow very brightly...
"...Or not, I guess! "
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Kavell's glaive burns with holy fire as it buries itself into Kikonu's chest. The power of the Eternal Rose causes the demon to convulse madly before finally collapsing and lying still.
Kikonu was carrying:
--1 suit of leather armour
--1 Composite Longbow (+2)
--1 chained sickle with a jade handle & a weighted ball at the end of the chain: called a kusarigama
--1 strange-looking flask containing a pink liquid
With the Oni dead-dead Friday looks around the the before turning to the harpy. "Are you okay, Miss Zaiobe?"
He looked at the items and frowned. Perhaps if studied really hard he discern their uses. He busied himself instead with moving closer to Friday the wand out.
"That my friend was very brave leaping in front of oleo fire for miss Zaiobe."
He began hiding his slight frown. He activated the wand helping to soothe the fiery spells marks left behind.
Without meaning too he added.
In the stories and songs the hero is usually your're kissed by the saved maiden, or rescue a princess , or something like that.