There is a shout of "Someone's there!" from the guards as they careen past the prison hut.
Pentos stands there, arms at his side, right in the middle of the blasted wall. They've spotted him for sure judging by the shouts.
Hawk readies his bow but stays next to Lilith.
Valex, blade in hand, moves to support Pentos.
Melo hesitates, thinking about Cyn and the others. "We go for the leader, if we can take him now it might end all this. If we don't see an opening we pull out. What about him? We need to move now." He points towards the prisoner, as he spots the guards moving to them as he flys 15 feet up.
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Spotting the guard rushing at them Lilith calls out We do not wish to fight you, but neither will we stand by and let you kill and eat other sentient beings. You have been led astray. Step back and let us deal with your evil leaders.
If she has time she will cast Shield on herself but her priority is to ready a spell. Without completely blocking a path out for the prisoner Lilith will ready to cast Create Pit to catch the first guards that dare approach them.
The prisoner looks Flynn over a little more closely, then smiles almost in a feral manner.
They're for helping me get out of tight spots
He then turns to look at the hole in the wall.
Looks like we gots our door now. Still if ya wanna talk wit' th' leader I can tag along...
Four guards run past, one glances back at you and keep running, then does a double-take and slows, drawing attention to you. The four running down turn and look at you menacingly, with smiles on their faces.
The guards slow up some as they approach the hole in the wall, giving the pit the other side a wide berth. The four of them have clubs drawn and grim expressions on their faces. One points a club at you.
The Master will be here soon, why don't you just leave before you get... hurt...
That stinks.
Lachen stiffens and try to keep an eye open for any potential ambush.
Think as the bad guy, Lachen. Think as a soldier. Think as someone who doesn't want to lose. What would you do?
I would keep people talking at my gate, and prepare myself for the assault. By military means, an attack from behind, if I have another way out for my troops. Or sneaky bowmen from the walls. By magical means, a flying, invisible mage sending fire and destruction from above.
Lachen looks nervously up the walls, and in the sky
Why would we be the only ones to have an aerial advantage?
We're not here for you. Flynn says flatly to the guards. But if you stand with the murdering cannibal bastard who runs this place then we are going to have a problem that you can't handle.
His hand twists on the leather grip of his lance.
Tell us where he is and then walk away. You don't have to die.
His gaze never leaves the guards but he hisses over his shoulder to the prisoner.
If this goes badly, stay low and head to the gate - the others will get you out.
Lenneth, we are about to have a fight on our hands here too. This has all gone wrong, if it looks like it's too much to handle get out of here. Melo and I can get away.
Melo casts another spell then moves in next to Flyn hovering 5 feet off the ground, staring the guards down. "Listen to my friend, we don't want to hurt you but thing have to change around here you're not animals!" He caws and flaps harder.
Even as the party ask their questions of the master, there is silence and simply grim faces from the guards, who look like brawlers from the worst dockside tavern, hands clenching around their clubs as they ready themselves for action.
The Master? Oh he'll be here soon, your magic made quite a noise and he'll have awoken to come and see what's going on.
The new voice steps forward, shedding darkness and the hood from their robe, revealing the face of a half-elven woman.
She points at Lenneth and raises her voice so it carries to everyone
Oh when you meet him you'll have no doubt!
She turns and points at Melo and Flynn
Leave the same way you came, before it's too late...
The group seems completely unmoved by your words
Who's this? Flynn asks the prisoner
They're not afraid of us. None of them are.
They'll learn to be if it comes to it...
Melo continues to hover moving closer to Flyn looking at him waiting for something to start. Feeling his sickness continue to affect him he begins to cast another spell hoping to cure himself of the sickness.
The pprisoner shivers in fear as the half-elven woman reveals herself. At Flynn's question he shakes his head and softly replies
Never seen her before, but I think we be over stayin' our welcome here...
He glances nervously around to check the guards were not surrounding the hut.
Pentos continues to stand by the pit, despite Lilith's urging to return to the safety of the main group.
The half-elf listens to Lenneth's words, and sadly shakes her head.
Everyone here is here of their own choice, because they want to survive, and survive they all have, living by the Master's rules.
she staggers suddenly in obvious pain, one hand going to her forehead
...you.. unbelievers!.. you have angered him... brought this upon yourselves!..
she hunkers down, shaking, and light begins to emanate from where she has her hands pressed on her head, and a hair-curling scream rents the air as she writhes on the floor in pain. The guards all look on, looking almost relieved, they've certainly seen this before.
Then woman goes completely still, the night is deathly quiet, before a shape swoops from the sky and slams in to the party, a whirling ball of talons, teeth and ferocious snarling!
He comes!!! wails the half-elf
Initiative:
The Master
Melo & Cyn
Lachen
Half-Elf
Guards
The prisoner
Valex
Lenneth
Lilith
Flynn
Hawk
Robban
Pentos
It is difficult to get a good look at the creature attacking you, it seems to consist of a vaguely serpentine form writhing around in a dark miasma where its talons, horns and large jaw seems to be always on the periphery, scant inches from you.
The talons flick out, raking fresh rivulets of blood across Lachen's arms and sending electricity coursing through him, before one coil of the beast slams across his chest leaving him barely upright.
The jaw clamps on to Lenneth's ribcage and shakes her briefly before ripping a chunk of skin away and taking Aura's sling away with it, fabric now shredded and almost unrecognisable.
With attacks lashing out in all directions, Valex encounters a sinuous tail that dives around his guard and batters against his body, wreathing him in lightning for a moment too
That hurts! Let's see how these creeps take their own medecine...
With a vicious snarl, Lachen attacks the serpentine creature, trying to get its attention and to get Lenn out of troubles.
"Flyn! They need us let's get in there!" Melo then flies up moving towards the creature attacking the party.
As the serpent thing descends on the group, Cyn bares her teeth as the creature attacks Lenneth she steps forward and starts to attack the creature.
It is difficult to tell if the blows Lachen and Cyn are levelling at the entity are connecting or not, certainly it still has the same sense of chaotic urgency as it did when it first came out of the sky.
The half-elf stops thrashing and goes to all fours, before rising like she's on marionette strings. In an alien, guttural voice she intones
The guards move closer to Pentos, skirting the pit, as they close in they strike with their clubs, battering the sorceror.
Those near the prisoner's hut rush Flynn and Melo, with two getting in range and lashing out with their clubs.
Valex steps to his right, bracketing the creature with Cyn, and lays into it.
AS he makes his attack, he wracks his brain to identify it.
You idiots are going to die for that creature? Then reap what you sew you mindless bastards! Flynn roars, stopping back with Skyfall and then ramming his Lance into the guard's face.
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The guards move closer to Pentos, skirting the pit, as they close in they strike with their clubs, battering the sorceror.
And this trigger Lilith's readied action. Before the southernmost two guards can close with Pentos a pit opens up under their feet with a good chance of making them fall in.
The wizard also calls out Ignore the guards and attack the half elven woman. I think she and this beast are linked.
Valex is unable to land a blow, and despite his fondenss for literature, he can't seem to recall anything approaching the description of the creature.
The prisoner hisses softly to Flynn
I have supplies and weapons that can hurt that thing! We gotta get 'em if we gonna hurt that thing!
The halfling only half hears however, his accurate blow spitting one guard through the throat and in to the brain, killing him instantly. As his club tumbles from his nerveless fingers, the prisoner quickly snatches it up and brings it up ready to use.
Lilith's spell causes a large hole in the earth, and two of the guards tumble in to the earth with surprised shouts.
Lenneth rises up in to the air, but just as she is about to raise herself out of reach of the creature, a flashing talon darts from the roiling electrical cloud and slashes across her leg , her blood arcs across the air and spatters on those below as she rises up in to the night sky.
Hawk looks torn between helping Pentos and those fighting the creature, and in the heartbeat he is deciding Robban launches himself in to the fray with precisely no thought to his actions beyond his club making contact with the unknown beast. Despite his well-aimed strike, the coils of the creature prove elusive.
Hawk takes the cue and raises his bow, flinching away as his arrow tip bursts in to bright light. Loosing it, it flashes like a meteor strike in to the heart of the dark clouds. There is an inhuman bellow that shakes the ground around you.
Pentos shakes himself awake, frowning at the guards in front of him. He takes a step back and brings his hands together, causing his own detonation, as waves of sound manifest and nearly flatten the two guards in front of him, knocking them off their feet and dangerously close to the pit behind them.
The dark creature's chaotic movements send a snapping jaw to tear chunks from Robban's thigh, as it drags itself free the twisted horns atop its head impale Cyn and send more electricity coursing through the feline . One weighty coil bursts from the cloud and smashes in to Lachen, staggering the soldier , almost in counterpoint, its tail comes sweeping out of the darkness to crash against Valex
Melo & Cyn
Lachen
Lachen cringes as the foul creature wounds Lenneth, and lowers his guard, getting himself hit. His own counter attack miss totally, as he's more focused on the flying woman (and not, as the rumors will perhaps say later, into the hope of watching her undergarments) than on his own fight.
Flynn leans forward to boot the guard from the end of his lance before spitting over his shoulder;
Then go and get your supplies, for your Father's sake! I need to take that b*tch down! HAAA!
As the man falls before him Flynn seizes his chance, spurring Skyfall on with a screech into a terrifying streak of blood and feathers. His gaze is steady and the tip of his lance unwavering as it levels, aimed at the Half-Elf sorceress.
he roars as he drives the lance into the woman's body and continues his flight to zoom past the melee.
Hearing the others shout out to take the half elf down, Melo sets his sights on her. Swooping down at high speeds he pulls up at the last second and claws at her face.
Cyn growls at the creature even more determined to take it down now it has hit her. She goes in to a wild rage and lashes out with devistating blows.
cyn - 34/42
melo 43/43
Lachen's mace fails to strike the creature, but Cyn's attacks finally make contact, sending blood and sparks spatterin over the ground. Melo's strike against the half-elf is unexpectedly diverted, his claws sliding off an invisible barrier around her.
The elf grins insanely and steps away from the druid, uttering the words of a spell and becoming suddenly insubstantial against the gathering dark.
There is a flash of feather and spear as Flynn and Skyfall power past her...
At the end of his charge, Flynn realises he has been struck by one or more of the guards he passed
The two guards by the half-elf mvoe towards Melo, smashing him with their clubs
The guards by the pit move towards Pentos, hammering at him with their clubs, he looks battered and bleeds profusely from a cut lip.
The guards by the prison hut descend on the prisoner and stike him with their clubs.
The prisoner
Valex
Lenneth
Lilith
Flynn
Hawk
Robban
Pentos
The Master
Melo & Cyn
Lachen
Half-Elf
Guards
Smile all you want...
Taking advantage of the distraction of the feline claws raking the beast, Valex tries to land a solid, damaging blow.
Flynn turns at the end of his charge, at the last minute the woman's magic made it seem that she was not at the end of his lance, and suddenly reality snaps back in to place, Flynn feels the blood upon his face, tastes the copper in he air as he sees the completely riven body of the half-elf torn nearly in two, the energies of her half-cast spell expending itself as distortions in the air around her body.
There is an unholy shriek from the creature fighting the party, the hissing sound and wretched smell of otherworldy flesh burning.
Valex wastes no time, plunging his sword in to the creature and scoring a glancing blow off its scales.
Lilith and Lenneth cast their spells, infusing their allies with magical enhancements.
The prisoner seems to have made himself scarce and the guards don't appear to be following him, instead turning to watch what else is going on.
Hawk takes advantage of Lilith's magic, sending multiple arrows in to the creature and being rewarded with mroe howls of pain. Robban spins in place winding up for a massive strike, but fails to connect and instead sends clods of grass and dirt scattering all around.
Pentos steps back hurriedly from the guards assaulting him, throwing up a hand and sending a jet of flame roaring across their bodies. They flail and scream, falling to the floor smoking.
If anything, the death of the half-elf and the multiple injuries have sustained serve only to further aggravate the twisting mass of blackened and sparking coils writhing inside the dark clouds in front of you. An inhuman cry resonates all around as it continues to lash out with tail, teeth, horns and claws. It's massive jaws snake between Cyn and Lachen to savage Lenneth once again.
Initiative order:
Melo & Cyn
Lachen
Guards
The prisoner
Valex
Lenneth
Lilith
Flynn
Hawk
Robban
Pentos
The Master
Spotting only a small glint flash before him as he see's Flyn charge in as the half-elf just crumbles at his attack. The smell of blood and guts in the air as a frenzy comes over Melo.
Looking back at the large beast seemingly divine insane at its master's death Melo flies up and charges over to help the others put the creature down.
Cyn continues her relentless attacks, trying to put the beast down.
cyn - 27/42
melo 43/43
will you be outdone by a slip, Lachen?
Hey, Big flying snake, how do it feel now that you are alone? You think you're mad with that? You think you can bully people, and eat people, just cause you're so f*** big and f**** powerful? Now you are making me mad...You pathetic worm... You want to know power? You want maybe to eat me? Let me hit you first...with all my anger, all my sins, all my guilt, all my shame...
Lachen voice change, muscles are bulging, as he lets loose. His weapon, already crakling with electricity, takes fire
I'll bring you down this time...
Lachen's first blow goes wide, but the second makes solid contact, though the electricity discharged by the mace seems to fizzle, leaving a fresh burn on Lachen's palm .
Cyn's blows are strong, but the erratic movements of the creature prove too much for the feline.
The creature is moving slower now though, the twists and turns of the serpentine body more erratic, the dark clouds and lightning fewer.
As Melo beats his wings to fly away, one of the guards manages to get a blow in
They then regroup together as if waiting for something.
Initiative order:
The prisoner
Valex
Lenneth
Lilith
Flynn
Hawk
Robban
Pentos
The Master
Melo & Cyn
Lachen
Guards