The demon chuckles, his hands coming together and a black bead drips from the hands, moving quickly to the middle of the area, exploding catching everyone (except Faith) in the black flames.
The fireball's explosion hurts Sasha and Zaine far worse than anyone else.
Pakshee assess the fight. With both Zaine and Sasha greviously wounded, she heals the person who has done damage to the demon. She touches Zaine from behind - as far from the demon as she can get. ()
Zaine digs his heels into Tulip's flanks, and the t-rex advances. The musket barks as the dinosaur lunges and bites. Tulip's bite completely misses the demon, but Zaine's bullet does hit the creature. And just a tiny bit of the oily smoke body is taken with the metal. But far, far less than Zaine was expecting.
Badly burned, Sasha tumbles back away from the group down the path they took to this point, in case the demon can launch another black fireball. Quite far away, she pulls a vial from her bag.
Áine curses, steps back from the oily form and fires another salvo.
Her arrows are all aimed true, but do no damage as if the creature's vile incorporeal body ignores the mundane metal of which they are made.
Faith runs past a cluster of passion flower vines, flowers in full bloom.
"Damn it!" Āine swears, pulling out arrows that are just a little bit different and firing in rapid succession.
Gunshot
Bite
grab
The demon growls lowly at Zaine, his hands crafting more shadow magic. Two bolts of shadow streak out, one aiming for Zaine... the other for his mount.
Zaine pulls hard on Tulip's reins, the black bolt of fire completely missing the large dinosaur - however, the second ray firmly hits Zaine. Who is surprisingly not as injured as he thought he would be.
Pakshee keeps Zaine and Tulip between her and the demon. "You can hit the monster, monster will want to hit you. No be hit by monster." She continues in that murmur in the background.
Zaine grimly reloads and puts another bullet into the monster. His shot just barely hits the nimble black ghost-like creature. His bullet does some damage. But it's alien body seems to protect it from the lead of the shot. Tulip tries to get her teeth into it. Her bite seems to be perfect, but her mundane teeth have no way to bite into the otherworldly presence of the monster.
Down the jungle path, Sasha downs the vial, pulls another one.
"Damn it!" Āine swears, pulling out arrows that are just a little bit different and firing in rapid succession. The different arrows seem to be doing the trick. Although they don't have much bite into incorporeal flesh at least they do some damage.
A wary okapi watches Faith pass.
Pakshee keeps Zaine and Tulip between her and the demon. "You can hit the monster, monster will want to hit you. No be hit by monster." She continues in that murmur in the background.
"I've been going about this whole combat thing all wrong," Zaine says wryly.
Zaine reloads and fires. Tulip roars in frustration.
"If you got it, cold iron works somewhat better." Āine says somewhat wryly. "Took me long enough to try it."
Āine maneuvers to keep the big t-rex between the oily demon and herself. She fires another salvo.
The shadow demon eschews more magical attacks, instead sliding forward, claws ripping at Zaine - passing through armor to freeze flesh. At the last moment, the demon's second claw is deflected by an errant wind, a perfect attack turned aside. It's long black teeth turning to bite into Tulip.
Pakshee continues to whisper encouragement to Zaine's speed, even as she flies back 5-ft. Her hand reaches out to touch Āine, who immediately grows to Tulip's size.
Zaine reloads and fires. Tulip roars in frustration. Although the shot is well placed, the powder must be a bit damp from the humid jungle, as it doesn't do any damage this time.
Sasha moves back to harry the demon. Although her weapons can't do any damage to the creature, she times her attacks to ensure Zaine and Aine hit.
Āine maneuvers to keep the big t-rex between the oily demon and herself. She fires another salvo. Although the demon still reacts to the special metal, her arrows did not strike very deep.
As Faith's interest becomes more apparent, Pakshee starts moving... even when the story is really not that interesting.
After, she twists to kiss him softly on the lips, her movements heavy, her smile saying everything.
A sated snake, heavy with its most recent meal, doesn’t even lift its head as Faith passes underneath.
"Of course I don't have any cold iron! Do you have any idea what the melting point of iron is?"
Ride
The second time, he trails off and looks down at her chest, drawing his gaze up to her face.
"Shall I put this book away for the evening? It would free up my hands for ... other things."
He flushes when he says it, but otherwise his gaze holds steady.
Āine looks surprised at her sudden change in size, but continues to concentrate on the shadow demon.
Āine moves to the side to begin to flank their opponent and continues to fire cold iron tipped arrows through the shadowy form.
"In hindsight, maybe I should have tackled Faith." Āine says to herself, thinking out loud.
With quick saddle work from the attacked Zaine, Tulip manages to avoid the attack from the shadow demon .
Seeing Zaine's care for his mount, the demon decides to attack where it will hurt - claws and teeth move to tear into Tulip. Quick movement from Zaine and rapid response from Tulip saves her from a single claw attack - but not the rest.
Pakshee moves back behind Zaine, touching his shoulder.
Zaine, looking wobbly in the saddle, nonetheless keeps fighting. He reloads and fires another musket ball into the shadows. This one doing just a bit of damage.
Sasha continues to help harry the demon.
Āine moves to the side to begin to flank their opponent and continues to fire cold iron tipped arrows through the shadowy form.
And it is finally enough. The demon cackles, screams, and dissipates into the shadows of nothingness.
...Faith comes to his senses, turns around, and runs back through the (no-longer-trackless) jungle.
He bursts back into the clearing, takes in the corpse of the ape, the enlarged Áine, and the general lack of combat.
"Who needs healing?" he asks, gulping air.
...Faith comes to his senses, turns around, and runs back through the (no-longer-trackless) jungle.
He bursts back into the clearing, takes in the corpse of the ape, the enlarged Áine, and the general lack of combat.
"Who needs healing?" he asks, gulping air.
An exhausted, charred, frozen, and lacerated Zaine raises his hand.
Āine looks down, turning her arms and twists to see as much of the backs of her legs as she can. "I'll live," she says, waiving off the offer of healing, "unless you're channeling, I think the guys who look a whole lot more bad-ass need it a lot more then I do."
she pauses, "Huh. Wonder where that came from? Could prisoner guy have got all the way to Mzali already? How long has it been?" she begins visibly calculating in her head.
"That doesn't feel like sun-worshipper magic," Faith says, still panting, as he walks over to Zaine.
"That doesn't feel like sun-worshipper magic," Faith says, still panting, as he walks over to Zaine.
3d8+7
"If you have some juice left, I think Sasha could use a bit. She took the same fireball I did."
Faith moves on to Sasha.
"That doesn't feel like sun-worshipper magic," Faith says, still panting, as he walks over to Zaine.
"Oh yeah, huh." Āine says, "but it did use a black fireball like thing..." she shakes her head. "Random demons running around this place?"
"If you have some juice left, I think Sasha could use a bit. She took the same fireball I did."
Sasha smiles thank you at Zaine, her breathing much easier after Faith cures her flash-fried skin.
Pakshee nods at Zaine's comment, "I am glad that shadow magic was only real for some of us, ape-shadow was nasty." She smiles at Zaine and Tulip, "Glad you and Tulip were here."
The ape's body is... odd. The muscles are over pronounced but the creature looks like it was half-starved prior to its death.
Amid bodies of the Mantis, you find that their magical armor has held up, three pairs of sawtooth sabres (two magical) and a magical ring. Both the ring and the magical swords on the body of what was most likely the head of the scout party.
"Black fireball, huh?" Faith sounds uncertain. "Maybe? Can't say for certain."
"Shadow Magic, I guess." Āine says, looking to Pakshee. Then at the armor and sawtooth sabres, "Oooh, look! Now we can get the Mantis all hot and bothered that we took out their advance party!" she chuckles under her breath.
She smiles at Zaine and Tulip, "Glad you and Tulip were here."
Zaine looks surprised. "Just doing my job."
"Shadow Magic, I guess." Āine says, looking to Pakshee. Then at the armor and sawtooth sabres, "Oooh, look! Now we can get the Mantis all hot and bothered that we took out their advance party!" she chuckles under her breath.
"We killed the thing that killed them," Zaine says shrugging. "Close enough for grapeshot, I guess."
Faith nods. "I support this decision."
After realizing the group is no longer on track for his planned camping site, Nkechi backtracks to find the dead ape - and the torn human bodies. He looks around, "Not a good campsite," he points to a bend in the river, "too much chance of flooding."
The day after you find the Red Mantis scouting party torn asunder by a demon-possessed ape passes quickly, the daily deluge cleaning the jungle air.
The next day, you spot two predators travelling through the forest although neither stalks to group - or even comes that close. The first is a rangy leopard, who pauses on the high above branches to watch the group with feline interest for a while before moving on to find actual prey. The second you spot a little bit before dusk, off in the distance you see a pure white ape with four arms.
A few days later, everyone is woken shortly before dawn by a loud roar that reverberates through the jungle. Moments later you hear the death cry of a monkey.
About mid-day, you see a number of saplings and torn-up brush, obvious evidence that something large has passed by into the forest. However the keen-eyed among you finds tracks of a barefoot humanoid in addition to the larger set of clawed feet that no doubt caused the damage. The trail of destruction leads deeper into the forest - away from the river.
"Shall we check this out?" Āine says, indicating the tracks and destruction.
"Sure," Zaine says from the saddle.
"Hey, anybody got the weird feeling that the monkey killer from the island followed us here?"
The trail of destruction through the underbrush (and at least one decent tree) is easy to follow as it moves away from the river deeper into the jungle. After about ten minutes you find a natural clearing in the jungle, the muddy ground replete with more tracks of the humanoids you've been following. A boar carvass lies splayed open on a boab tree, its entrails laid out before it.
At the far edge of the clearing sits a small gravesite surrounded by anthills, with a gaping hole in the side of the cairn marking where a tomb was recently breeched by the main force provided by the large dead troll standing motionless near the gap. As you arrive at the very dead boar, a man exits the cairn. He wears an over-sized darkwood mask carved to resemble a stylized frog-demon and several macabre fetishes made from human hands dangle from a thong around his waist. His dark-skinned has been coated with something white and ashy, giving him a pale white crust.
He looks around the clearing as he exits, seeing the group (including the large t-rex) and (in Polygot), "Kill the outlanders." His eyes go over Tulip's strong form with greed.
Āine eyes become wide and raptor like as she looks at the person in front of them with extreme distaste.
Zaine says back in Polyglot, "Many have tried, you sorry son of a b@**#," as he draws the musket from the bandolier.
Initiative Zaine
Initiative Tulip
Zaine digs his heels into Tulip's flanks and the t-rex surges forward in a powerful charge. Her jaws come down on the witch doctor.
Grapple
Zaine's musket fires after the dinosaur slams into her prey.
Faith puts his hands up and replies in Polyglot, "We would rather you didn't."
You can just see the man's eyes narrow behind the wide holes of the mask. In Polygot, "Fine, let me have the sharptooth and you can leave unharmed. She and my friend here will be the perfect minions to take back to my the ungrateful bastards back home."
He thumps the spear, which starts to glow with magic, then the mask glares.
"He seems nice," Zaine says.
Since Zaine's Ride skill is +16, Tulip makes it automatically.
Clearly, after yesterday's dire ape, Faith isn't going to be rattled by a man in a mask.
"No," Faith responds in Polyglot. "She is one of us."
Despite Zaine and Tulip's presence, Āine's raptor enhanced vision takes in too much. She "Yeeps" and heads in the opposite direction.
The man nods, "Then it is right that you all stay together." He motions for the troll to move, "You will all be useful."
"My goddess says you need to die now," Faith says (in Polyglot). "That would be useful for me."
Faith pulls Charity, which glows softly. He moves to intercept the troll. "You first, tall and gruesome."
Áine quickly disappears into the foliage
troll -17, -25
necro -29, dead
"My goddess says you need to die now," Faith says (in Polyglot). "That would be useful for me."
Faith pulls Charity, which glows softly. He moves to intercept the troll. "You first, tall and gruesome."
Zaine gives the witch doctor a wink.
Zaine digs his heels into Tulip's flanks and the t-rex surges forward in a powerful charge. Her jaws come down on the witch doctor. The necromancer, who had been just about to take to the sky his toes mere inches from the ground, looks utterly shocked to find himself embraced by Tulip's sharp, painful mouth hug. You can't see the pain on his face - covered as it is with a mask. But the scream is a good indication that this encounter is not going as planned.
Sasha laughs at the pitiful sight of the spellcaster becoming dino chow, runs across the clearing and throws herself (and the magical swords she is using until they need be sold) into the fray against the zombie troll. The magical sabre takes a very nice chunk out of the zombified flesh.
Zombies are slow and easy to outrun, their advantage being the tireless way they hunt down flesh.
This is not that kind of zombie.
The troll lashes out with bite, claws and a kick of its mighty leg, moving just as quickly as it, no doubt, did in life. The claws flash out at Sasha, who manages to parry one. The bite and leg reach out to Faith and are rebutted by armor and magic.
Zaine's musket fires after the dinosaur slams into her prey. The head (and mask) hit the ground, separated from the body which Tulip shakes again for good measure.
Pakshee moves up to be about 25-feet from the troll.
Zaine has to chuckle, shaking his head at the necromancer's fate. "I thought it was gonna go bad for him, but I have to admit, even I'm a bit surprised."
"Hey ugly! You're next," Zaine says.
grapple
Zaine fires a musket ball into the troll's face.
Áine skids to a stop. She curses, turns and fires, barely able to make out the combatants through the thick jungle growth, she none-the-less finds her unliving target three times in quick succession. All three arrows sinking deep.
Faith attacks the troll again, Charity continuing to glow.
Faith attacks the troll again, Charity continuing to glow. While she doesn't bury herself as deep, the undead troll does show more damage. It also doesn't seem to care you have fully killed its reanimator.
"Hey ugly! You're next," Zaine says.
Tulip shakes the necromancer, tossing him aside like a toy, as Zaine wheels her about, squaring up with the troll. She tears into the undead monster with a bite. Her bite sinks deep, and would have absolutely held the troll in a death grip - except that she destroys the undead.
Checking out the gaping hole in the cairn, you find a looted tomb, ancient bones carelessly disturbed by the necromancer.
"The boar appears to have been killed for some sort of divination spell. What he was looking for though, I have no clue."
"The boar appears to have been killed for some sort of divination spell. What he was looking for though, I have no clue."
"He clearly didn't see the future," Zaine says, patting Tulip's neck. The t-rex spits out the rotten troll and returns to the corpse of the necromancer to snack.
Faith looks into the entrails. "Áine, do you think we can eat this boar? I'd hate for it to go to waste."