Survival:
As the fear leaves and his mind returns to him Jorzan holds his breath, listening, as he hears the voices on the stairwell. He felt no guilt over his previious fright, for he knew that it had been magic, not his own decision, that had impelled his flight. Normally, he knew very well that there was little to nothing that he feared. That did not mean he was a fool however.
As he hears the voices stop, he makes an instant decision. If those were wolfguards, he had already experienced how deadly skilled they were, and while he could not be sure how many of them there were, if there were more than one, that would be enough. Add whatever that big thing was, and he'd be a fool to try and take them all on alone. Plus, that big creature seemed to be able to smell him, so hiding would not be an ideal option either. Most important of all though, he needed to get word to his allies so this group did not take his friends unawares. No, at best, he could stall them and then warn his companions.
Quickly reaching into his haversack, he withdraws and activates a smokestick, it's thick fumes almost instantly filling the stairwell before him with obscuring smoke. Next he tosses out two bags of caltrops in the area obscured by the smoke, making sure to cover the full width of the stairwell. 'There, that should slow them down a bit' he thinks to himself with some small satifaction. Then, without pausing another beat, he turns and runs back towards the battle, this time conscious to make sure he makes no sound.
Stealth:
"Easy now. My name is Sir Justahl. I and my Company have come to Baron Ormir's palace to rescue Cassandra's brother Kevin. Would you be he?"
@Jorzan:
Be boy backs against the wall, drawing his gnarled club as he darts along the tapestry.
Reaching the far wall, his momentum carries him a couple of steps up the wall where he turns and bounces off the adjacent wall with a scream to pounce at the skeleton fighting the monster, completely missing it and landing flat on the floor with a loud smack, his club bouncing away across the floor.
Maiathreen glances at the young boy as he attempts to attack the skeleton only to land flat on his face, his club sliding across the floor. He can't help but wonder why they brought such a young person here to fight.
Sensing the presence behind it, the skeleton turns to face the boy, looming over him, reaching with one hand, curling the other into a metal fist.
As it does so, the monster rears up, raising a single, massive fist and slams it down, shattering the construct and scattering lead covered bones about the area.
"Hrumph!"
Chunks of lead, bone, and marble dust drop from his furry fist as he positions himself toward the remaining skeleton.
The rolling noises get louder and suddenly a horrid torrent of silver balls comes rocketing through the open door to the east ballroom, flooding over the floor of the Promenade. They are moving rather quickly, and with intent. They flow around the skeletons, not touching them, likewise the marble pillars. The flow around Red's corpse and scattered cards. When they get to the squares where Kelne and Gray and Sarish are, though, they suddenly deploy wicked, razor-sharp spikes that slice through steel and flesh as one, like malevolent little caltrops possessed of will and focus. Poor Sarish extends his wings and howls in surprise and pain as his feet are sliced by the things, causing Brook to give a panicked "Wait, Sarish! She's not in the saddle yet! Wait!"
Meanwhile, the skeletons simply continue to pummel whatever they come across, regardless of the odds, heedless of their fate. The one furthest west lands vicious punches on Monster and Mai, cracking both warriors solidly with its lead-covered hand, but the other one badly mis-times its strike on Kelne and its fist glances off the northman's armor and collides with its other fist, causing it to miss breaking Gray's nose by just a fraction of an inch.
Seemingly forgotten by everyone, the last human guard, the one that Karthan and Jorzan were interrogating, takes advantage of the chaos around him to get up and sprint around the giant open door, giving him both and from the lethal Karthan as he sprints desperately for the door on the south wall.
Min and Lin prepare to dive forth, with Belsarious on the back concentrating furiously on something, looking like a man possessed, almost.
"Damn it! Don't worry about trying to attack those things individually they are called warden jacks you have to hit them all at once!" Maiathreen says as he manages to avoid a direct hit from the skeleton only taking a glancing one to his side.
Knowledge (arcana) to ID Warden Jacks. Mostly "Can they be killed with a fireball". :)
Karthan bellows, "Get Kelne and Gray and your man off the ground. High off the ground. I can clear a good chunk of those things out."
Knowledge(arcana):
Knowledge(arcana): 1d20+17
"How did you come to be here anyway? Is there anything I can do? I'm afraid I'll make you worse if I touch you."
Screwing up his courage, he nevertheless says a little prayer to Iomedae and tries to Lay On Hands on the boy.
:P lolAlso, whose rope was used to tie him up? Make sure that comes off your equipment list.[/ooc]
Things had definitely gone downhill, Kelne reflected. Some kind of alarm must have been raised to bring these things in here, and no doubt other attackers would be swarming in shortly.
"Guards, halt!" he snapped at the spiky balls, not particularly expecting it to work but seeing no harm in making the attempt. "Gray, get Cassandra safely into the saddle, then pull back," he continued. Both his hands were full and somebody had to keep the cursed skeleton away from them in any case.
Min was still shaking in the saddle as he watched the strange silver balls roll into the room, once they suddenly spiked everyone on the ground he realized they too were another obstacle to be overcome. Per Captain Damians orders he leveled his bow at the remaining skeleton and fired a set of arrows into it, hoping to give the large warrior's the time to help Brook and Sarish get the little girl to safety. As his arrows buried deep into the metal covered skeletons chest and head, Mai's shout reached his ears and he nodded in response to the magus.
---->
---->
Lin gave a frustrated growl as she found it hard to maintain her altitude in the dead air of the building, she was forced to swoop overhead and try to find a place to land or turn around. As she swooped over there heads she saw that she wouldn't be able to pass through the doorway easily and tried to gauge how much room she had over the strange creatures head and what room their was in the area beyond.
Min's arrows smack through the skeleton in front of Kelne and Gray, but only do minimal damage to the thing, not seeming to hinder it at all. Lin, meanwhile, pulls up just short of a marble pillar, the damnable close quarters making her life quite difficult at the moment.
From the moment they entered the gate, Aylaeth had been completely enraptured by the Dragonsinger's majestic and otherwordly means of transporting them through the Ley Lines. She had studied and been deeply involved in magic most of her life, and after her experiences in their last aerial battle and her evolution she now had magic coursing through her veins, yet never, never, had she experienced magic anything remotely like this.
The experience affected her profoundly and left her a little less quick to react than her norm once they made it through the gate. Yet in mere moments her full senses returned to her and she well knew when it was time to study and when it was time to fight!
Her gaze upon the tapestries quickly indicating to her that they were indeed in the right place, the fact is confirmed once she spies the tall half-orc sorcerer. As he raises and sardonic eyebrow at her she cannot help but smile in response. 'He always was the charmer, that one.' she remarks to herself. Her thoughts go no further than that though for even were she not already bonded to her heart mate, never before had she felt any physical attraction to a male. Ada'an sniffs in disdain as he catches the wave of her emotion and comments daily "The half-orc would certainly be a better bet than being bonded to a horse, mistress.". "Careful, rustbucket, lest this Horse decide to test whether you are truly immortal after all."
"Quiet you two." she mummers distractedly, having years ago become used to their constant bickering "We have far more important matters at hand."
Taking a moment more to asses the rapidly changing field of battle, as the new menace of the warden jacks suddenly appear, her course of action is clear to her. Seeing the Northerner, Kelne, wisely flee the area of the warden jack swarm she calls out to the unknown cleric to do the same. "Priest of Pharasma! Follow your companion! Clear the way!"
Waiting to see that he does so, and that Brook and Sarish are safely in the air with their passenger, the Sylph Magus directs Tora'an to the optimal point and, with a brief concentration and wave of her staff, unleashes a devastating cone of mutilating force upon the guardians, instantly wiping out nearly their entire number.
Understanding that the newly arrived winged ally is much more capable of dealing with the construct than it is, Zan instead goes after the bound yet still fleeing guard. Floating through walls and doors and once again reacheing down to touch the guard, the shadow drains more of the guard's energy and coordination away.
Touch attack:
Dex Drain:
As the guard moans, Zan looks Westward, sensing that's it's master's mind is now free from the supernatural fright, and that he now rapidlyreturns.
@Aylaeth:
Gray, heeding the warnings coming from all around him and certainly not wishing to test his healing powers after being crushed by magic from all sides, beats a hasty retreat, following Kelne to the east side of the Promenade.
Aylaeth flies over the area affected by the Warden Jacks, carefully placing herself and aiming in such a way as to not hit Brook and his passenger or Captain Lamorak. With a single blast of arcane power, she manages to demolish a huge swath of the evil little balls of steel.
Oh and R-8 is fine.
Assuming Sir Damien Lamorak is high enough up - and I hope he is - Karthan does the following:
"This...this is a problem I can solve." "Go up." he says to Lamorak, "Then please kill the construct to the south of the monster."
Fireball, centered on squares M8-N8,M9-N9
Karthan's Unseen Servant now has his crossbow in a square adjacent to him.
Karthan's move action, after casting Fireball, will be to pull a wand out of his bandoleer.
Maiathreen curses his luck at finding creatures completely immune to his spells, but he does have one remaining trick up his sleeve. He concentrates on the bond he and Servais have mentally flinching at first but not having a choice he changes Servais'. The blade makes a strange humming noise and seems to waiver oddly. Maiathreen strikes out at the skeleton repeatedly putting small cracks through the
Lead playing with Servais' sonic blade.
Livain glances between the two targets seeing that Maiathreen appears to be handling the skeleton where he is at she concentrates on the one closest to the children.
Hot on the heels of Aylaeth's massive force blast, which crushes thousands and thousands of the tiny Warden Jacks and severely damages one of the remaining skeletons, Livain's lethal accuracy hammers that same skeleton, causing it finally to explode in a shower of metal and bone. Only one skeleton remains, now, and that is the one sandwiched between Mai and the Monster, and it seems only a question of which will destroy the thing first; the Magus's blackblade or Monster's giant fists.
Karthan Zhosk then shows everyone why he is called the Master of Fire by unleashing a giant fireball that melts thousands more of the Warden jacks into molten slag, covering the floor in a steaming pool of metal. In spite of all this and in defiance of Kelne's attempts at stopping them with his voice, the remaining Warden Jacks continue milling around looking for targets.
All this occurs over the horrified screams of the last living human guard, who is quickly having much of his lifeforce drained away by the spooky Zan.
Unbeknownst to everyone fighting in the Promenade, Jorzan is busy spending his time spreading smoke and caltrops in the far stairwell in the west ballroom, slowing down a threat of which they aren't yet aware.
Captain Lamorak follows Karthan's suggestion, being of sound military tactics. He raises his lance up as Keythan zooms just above the floor. Some of the remain Warden Jacks leap up to snap at the griffon's feet, but the magical beast avoids the vicious swarm. Damian thrusts forward as he connects, the power of Keythan's strength multiplying his own. Another flash of holy light ignites and burns a hole in the skeleton's face, which Damian thrusts his lance through. The skeleton construct collapses onto the ground between Maiathreen and the summoned monster. He turns Keythan around next to Karthan and extends a hand to the sorcerer. "Come on, get up! You'll be in a better position to blast them from above!"
*KA-BLAMMMM!* The last skeleton falls to Captain Lamorak's lance, leaving only the Warden Jacks to contend with, at least as far as anyone can see.
Karthan's fireball is a 20' radius, not 10'. The 8 squares directly north, east, south and west of the clear zone should also be cleared on the map.
The young ones struggle to get Cassandra up and situated in front of Brook, but they succeed. Brave little Sarish eyes the Warden Jacks balefully and at the last possible second gives a single mighty push with his wings and flies all three of them to safety high in the northeast corner of the Promenade.
The boy shakes his head to clear it and straightens his too-big-for-him-anyway helmet and walks over to his Monster. He looks at Monster's fur, matted with his own blood, and starts petting his friend, whispering a soft and surprisingly melodic little song to him, the words to which are completely incomprehensible.
After being healed, the monster smiles a big toothy grin and grunts. He pats the boy on the head with great care, then takes a single step back. He looks at Captain Lamorak's outstretched hand, then at Karthan. Putting two and two together the great furry outsider easily hoists Karthan up and sets him gently into Keythan's saddle. "HRUMPH! Fiery man ride with new friend! Melt bad sharp stones!"
Unfortunately, as this is happening, the Warden Jacks have pulled in their spikes and rolled around the Promenade again, using their quickness to chase down those attempting to flee. Monster just finishes placing Karthan up out of harm's way when tens of thousands of razor-sharp spiked balls of metal hammer into his legs and feet, gouging out great chunks of flesh and eliciting a mournful cry of pain from the creature. Boy's eyes get big and he is about to help when a swarm descends on him, too, tearing into his young and tender flesh with equal visciousness.
Maiathreen, Gray, and Kelne all suffer similar fates as the malevolent little construct swarms seek to demolish them from the ground up, slicing open their feet and ankles and calves; whatever they can reach.
DM
Continue In meditation till the arrival of new BBEG's
knowledge
Roll if needed
With no way of hurting the cursed swarm, Kelne settled for getting out of the way so one of the spellcasters could swat them. Extricating himself from the swarm, he headed for the northern tapestry, sheathing his sword as he went. If he could just get a bit of time uninterrupted, maybe he could get at that pocket dimension.