|
Garith nods to Oriana in thanks for the healing and passes between she and Maelchar to i:21 and attacks the tiefling that Ryu attacked.
+1 if Celestial crusader applies
for
Pakak mutters a now too familiar arcane word, and a ray of frost shoots forth...
Zeriax shifts his position for a better shot, and unleashes a volley at the woman with the glaive.
Round 3 recap
Sir Garith moves up to attack the tieflings but find that their armor is too much for him at this time. Pakak tries to finish the wounded tiefling off but fares no better than Garith. Zeriax fires 2 arrows at the chest of the inquisitor taking cover behind the tieflings. Unfortunately the arrows collide with an invisible barrier and fail to penetrate it to reach the flesh behind it.
attack Ryu
damage
spectral weapon
damage
tiefling on Ryu then Garith +4 each
damage +1 each
damage
Round 4
The woman wielding the glaive targets Ryu as the two tieflings split to allow a path for her to attack. The glaive descends in a mighty arc although her aim was off. should she have landed the blow it would have unleashed a blow mightier than what would be expected by the looks of her. The hovering glaive takes a swipe at Sir Garith and causes another 7 damage before winking out of existence. The tieflings follow up with the 2 glaive attacks, one targeting Ryu and the other Sir Garith. Ryu remains unscathed this round but the tiefling has Garith's number now and hits for 4 damage. If Girath had his normal armor he is sure that at least one of the blows would have been deflected. The 2 eagles continue their pursuit of their foes. the one manages to hit the tiefling dropping him to the ground freeing up and avenue for approach the woman but not without risk. Her reach with the glaive threatening the spaces to get to her.
Maelchar moves up (to F20, avoiding threatened squares) and targets the woman with the glaive.
Ryu looks down at the Tiefling in front of him.
If I drop that poxing whore it'd open the hall for Garith-sama and Angel-chan and the rest to charge in...
Pakak shuffles forward and tries once more to hit his target.
"My arrows cannot reached the female" - Zeriax comments - "She may be magically protected" - as he takes a step closer to the fray.
Oriana targets the female inquisitor holding the glaive with a magical, small orb of acid. (30 ft range -- I believe the enemy is within range of Oriana's current position.)
AOO
damage
Ryu swigs at the tiefling but misses the chance to put it out of commission. The inquisitor misses Maelchar with the opportunity attack and pays for the miss with a hard blow to the sternum which almost knocks her to the ground gasping for air. Pulling resolve deep from within she remains standing and continues to face you all. Sir Garith drops the last tiefling and steps up to threaten the woman with his shield but not before healing himself for some of the damage from the weapon that was floating above him. Xanxan fire a pair of arrows the first of which finally makes it through the invisible barrier and hits the inquisitor in the upper arm drawing a spray of blood. The arrow stays lodged in the arm. Pakak finds that the orb of acid is just accurate enough to singe the cheek of the woman but not enough to drop her. Oriana has trouble though getting past he invisible barrier. Perhaps now that she has experienced it first hand next time she can account for it the way Xanxan has.
Switching tactics slightly, the woman focuses more on protecting herself and less on damage. Still targeting her favorite target she swings the glaive at Ryu hitting him for a massive 11 points of damage before she moves and drops down the hole. Moving in such a way though left her open for a split second to a retaliation by Garith and Maelchar.
Maelchar strikes a massive blow at her...
Maelchar strikes a massive blow at her...
Ryu nods his head, his lips in a grim smile as he watches the brutal attack of Maelchar's weapon slam into the skull of the enemy in front of them.
The metal barb takes a vicious chunk from the left temporal lobe and clouds the tight tunnel with a pink mist of shredded brain matter which is ripped with reckless abandon from the skull itself as tiny fragments of bone tumble through the air to splatter onto the ceiling above - there to hang on the stone walls for a moment until they cake from the stone and tumble the ruined corpse below...
"Hells yeah, Mal - that was some damn good work," Ryu says with a crooked grin and slams his meaty hand in a fraternal way on Maelchar's shoulder.
Mael gives Ryu a twisted sort of smile and nods to him to acknowledge the praise. "I got a lucky hit in on her... she looked like she was trying to get away."
He turns to Garith, who'd just been slammed again after healing himself and reaches to find a healing potion to give him. "You look like you need this, cousin, and I have no spells left for the day."
Ryu drapes his heavy arm over Maelchar's shoulder in a familiar sort of way.
"Oh piss on that," he says with good nature.
"You tore the little whore's brains out - luck or skill, that was damn fine work. Damn fine!" he adds with enthusiasm.
He glances at Maelchar and the potion.
"I'd not worry much about the potion, if we can spare it. Remember, we slept a full night; all that needs to happen for him to get his spells back is waiting for sunup; and that's less than an hour away. If Garith-sama's got the balls to wait until that time he can get all the healing he needs. If he uses the potion now - well; the thing about potions is - any one can use 'em, even if you're unconscious. I'd rather have one handy if a healer drops so we can feed them a potion to just bring 'em around."
He grins widely at the corpse at the bottom of the hatch.
"But that's just me, though," he adds.
"So - you want to do the honors?" he says gesturing to the body below, curious to know if Maelchar would prefer first search.
Oriana extends her praise to her fellow comrades, bowing her head toward her brother, Maelchar, for his killing blow on the female with the glaive. To the nobleman, Aravashinal, she extends her gratitude for summoning the five celestial eagles.
Oriana looks about her, moving toward the pit, observing the area in case of further threat. She checks/searches the bodies of the felled mongrelmen and tieflings.
She casts over the area.
After her search and observations, Oriana approaches the dwarf, Pakak, and enquires after his wellbeing, "You stood bravely under their heavy assault. How are your wounds?"
|
|
"Well met, my friends. That was certainly a brutal ambush, but we came forth victorious. Mael, I am alright, not in good condition but not desperate. Now a moment," Garith climbs down the hose and returns a few moments later with the broken body of the evil inquisitor. He presents it to the maji, asking, "What sorts of magic gear does this woman posess?" while searching her body for things like her un-holy symbol and such.
After her search and observations, Oriana approaches the dwarf, Pakak, and enquires after his wellbeing, "You stood bravely under their heavy assault. How are your wounds?"
"Bravely? Mmm... little choice did I have when others have never flinched, how could I not do the same if I wanted to call them peers with true on my side?" The dwarf looks a mess still, and does not lie about it, "I took a powerful blow to the head."
He hears Garith talk of magic, "A moment, and I shall try to find out if you like?"
"Bravely? Mmm... little choice did I have when others have never flinched, how could I not do the same if I wanted to call them peers with true on my side?" The dwarf looks a mess still, and does not lie about it, "I took a powerful blow to the head."
Oriana looked quizzically upon the dwarf, but did not share her silent thoughts. "Soon, we can restore our magic and provide you with healing, Pakak. Mayhap the healing scale would be better with the severity of your wounds. Try not to move too much lest the blood begin to flow anew." There was indeed an ugly wound on his head that was worrisome, yet the sturdy dwarf persevered in his task.
Ryu smears the blood off his chest with the back of his forearm and flings the droplets to the ground with a bright smile.
"Dawn's less than an hour away; so that's no worries," he says with a shrug.
"Meantime we got pinched by some basterds who came up hard and fast after us all sly-like and we don't know where they came from," he adds with a glance at the others.
"Don't know about you guys, but I want to know where these little whores came from."
"So... I'll be back in a bit," he says with a grin.
Letting his companions go through the nuances of sorting through trinkets and magical toys is a job that is not very interesting to Ryu.
Instead, he hops down to the ground and moves to the room that has the various ropes in it.
He moves to each shaft and pulls all the ropes/chains up from the chasms to the summit, except for one (randomly chosen).
He'll activate his scale to pop on some Darkvision, and then he'll put his dagger between his teeth and go have a look...
stealth by Ryu
perception 6 each
stealth other +13 each + distance
Ryu
Ryu climbs down the ladder to the room that hosted the 3 clerics. Not seeing much to inform him of the presence of the ambushers he walks steadily to the east to check in the chain that was pulled up earlier. As expected the chain is still brought up and secured with no trace of anyone passing through since the group was here. Moving quickly south Ryu retraces the path till he arrives at the room with the spider woman with the bow. The door to the northeast is still closed and the ladder that was raised in the southeast he notices is now lowered. Looking down the hole he sees a room about 20 feet below him. He sees a solid floor with a small pool of stagnant water to the south. The smell is of damp air with a touch of mold (normal kind, not poisonous or deadly that you know of). Not seeing much else Ryu climbs down halfway to peer into the room. The room is another barricade room with a door ajar to the east. From the slightly open doorway a soft orange light can be seen.
Ambush site...
While most of the group is busy searching the bodies of the slain and tending to wounds Ryu steps away to continue his search of the rooms to the south. After hauling the body of the inquisitor up the group efficiently combs through the belongings and Pakak starts to identify magic items. The first item of note is the wand that was used to create the floating glaive. Pakak identifies it as a wand of spiritual weapon (caster level 3) with 11 charges left on it. Clearly a valuable piece of equipment in the right hands. Also magical that Pakak is able to point out is a potion of cure moderate wounds, a potion of invisibility, and the glaive. The glaive gives off a magic aura but then the magic fades away while Pakak is still examining it. Clearly it was spelled to enhance its performance but it still is a wonderful weapon as it is MW quality. The rest of the gear is mundane and combined with the tieflings and mongrelmen you find 3 lt crossbows and 25 bolts, 3 clubs, 2 rapiers, 3 padded armors, 2 studded leather armors, 1 MW chainshirt (on the inquisitor), 2 sets of thieves tools, 3 alchemist fires, 1 tanglefoot bag, 1 antitoxin, holy symbol and bejeweled prayer book (worth 75gp but know religion DC 15 to identify), key, 48gp in coins and a letter.
Ryu dangles slowly from the rope and thinks about what may be there...
He peers into the semi-darkness of the room:
Ryu you can't make anything else out from where you are.
Ryu debates climbing down the rope and possibly climbing up and telling his companions what he sees. However, he decides he'll go back up and let the others know what's up.
Therefore he goes back.
Heading back to his companions he looks hard them, the blood dripping off his chest as they continue to stand there.
"Hey - there's some light in the room below. Are any of you planning on exploring it, or are you just going to wait here?" he asks the others.
Maelchar examines the prayerbook, fully expecting it to be something dedicated to an evil god, but you never know.
Maelchar the book and holy symbol are a set of Baphomet. As most people would not be willing to purchase these items due to the taint of conspiracy, you might be able to get a reward from the government for bringing them in as additional proof of the cultists actions underground.
Ryu's eyes flick over to Pakak and he observes the fact that the sturdy dwarf's best efforts to identify magical gear in the pile didn't seem to be working very well.
He glances at the others in the group and sighs at their stoicism at what he relied so far.
"Piss and blood," he mutters with a dry growl.
"Oye - Stoneskin - I'm going to go back down below and explore that room. But first, I'm going to go explore the door down where we were sleeping," he says with a louder voice.
Ryu walks down the end of the hallway to the doorway that stood as barrier to the sound of the strange muffled squishing that Oriana had heard before.
Putting his hand on the latch and holding his weapon in his other hand, he tears open the door and looks beyond.
"Hey gang - guess what's beyond door number one!" he says with a flat smile.
As soon as he opens the door and examines what's beyond the door, he'll take that information and act on it.
After that he'll go back to the rope and climb down (assuming there's nothing exciting beyond the door).
"I'll be heading down the rope again; if you all want to stay here, that's okay with me, though."
|
|
"Wait, Ryu, we are not yet ready!" Garith says. "Rest, Ryu, regain your stamina and we shall continue as a unit, rather than facing the unknows while we are un-preprared. We did not open that door yesterday for we were weary and now we are weary and injured. So hold, and bunk down if you must do something this instant, yes?"
After storing the loot, Garith will sleep to regain his LoH, then rise and prey as he dons his armor. Since Pakak and all the others are up, Pakak can prep spells while we finish our rest and we'll be ready to head out 15 minutes after Ria and Mael wake up and meditate as spontanious casters. Then we can explore and open doors.
From the pile of spoils, Zeriax takes interest only on the thieves tools and tanglefoot bag, but he does not pick anything up, leaving those decisions to the rest of the group.
He notices Ryu coming back up from his scouting, and heading towards the door - without a word, he simply follows him, bow at the ready.
As he hears Garith's words, he comments to the barbarian - "Friend Ryu, I believe Sir Garith is right. Now is the time to carefully ponder our actions - we are at the most vulnerable position possible until we recover somewhat"
Pakak nods a thanks at Oriana's words as he speaks aloud of the items "Wand of spiritual weapon, potions of moderate healing and invisibility," He eyes the glaive, "This was magical, but that spell has faded. It is still excellent quality."
Then Ryu begins talking of running off again, "Listen to Garith, Claykin. I am more than half dead. It is only the summoning of the eagles that enabled us to survive that encounter. If you should find more trouble now, and another battle break out, I do not think some of us will survive it."
Oriana's steady, low voice cuts across the space.
"We cannot explore that room at present. We must finish our rest so we may be able to restore our magic and heal the wounded. It would be rash to continue on alone, Ryu Tadamasa, or even as a group when half are badly injured, including yourself."
Ryu turns a rather confused look at the group at large.
"Well, the thing is... I asked what ya'll want to do, you know?"
He scratches some of the dried blood in his beard absently.
"I asked if anyone got a problem with that; I was pretty clear about it, you know?"
He presses the heel of his palm against the wound; the dull ache where the blade sliced into his muscles hurting a little.
"If anyone had said something to me about what they wanted to do after the fight; or maybe after I came back from exploring, or even after I said I wanted to open the door - than, hell yeah, I'd have listened."
He shrugs a little.
"I like action, you know? I'm up for doing things; the thing is... if you guys are more into chilling out, that's cool."
"So like - just let me know what you're thinking about, you know? Otherwise I end up guessing, and when I guess, I end up picking what I want to do; and sometimes you guys don't like what I pick, you know?" he says with a sheepish grin.
|
|
[edit]changed rant:
I didn't see Ryu asking about opening the door. Between my last post about determining what kind of gear we got, and the next time i was able t sign on, Ryu had been exploring and then decided to open the door before we had a chance to heal. THere wasn't any discussion about going through the door.
I'd said that we should bunk down finish our rest and then move on, and you wanted to explore, which was fine, but now you're saying that nobody said anything about what we wanted to do, even though I had done so
either you forgot, you didn't listen, or i wasn't clear, at the time. I don't want to tell you what to do, but it's a co-operative game that doesn't do Solo stuff well. so lets heal up, and then we can move on with exploring.
"Perhaps as a company, considering that we lack an officer of rank, we should arrive at a concensus before taking such action. It is not that i wish to 'chill out' abut rather complete our recuperation as we are in severely worse shape than we were when we descided to bunk down last night and even less able to explore."
again, we bunk down and move on at dawn. do we want to finish clearing this area below or head through the door. there's prolly stuff down here that may be important, and as Crusaders, we may want to deal with the heritics before moving on?
"We should take the letter and the prayerbook back to the surface with us. They are proof of what has been going on down here, and the involvement and conspiracy with those above."
|
|
"I fear there may not be a command as such to whom we can report this. Also, we must locate this Blade of Yaniel if it remains here, and sacking the checkpoints may be in order. This quest to return to the surface has become more than that, as there is a conspiracy just underground."
For information on Yaniel
+2 if it's an evil outsider though i doubt it
just in case it's relevant
Pakak, or anyone with an Int score?
Do our wards have any information?
Garith will mention whatever we know about Yaniel, and what is going on here, and ask our wards, "What information have you to add to this?"
"Perhaps as a company, considering that we lack an officer of rank, we should arrive at a concensus before taking such action. It is not that i wish to 'chill out' abut rather complete our recuperation as we are in severely worse shape than we were when we descided to bunk down last night and even less able to explore."
Ryu watches Garith a moment, his hand draping over the hilt of his sword.
”Dansei wa hikui bujoku no tame shibō shi-ta…” he says softly watching him for a moment, his eyes going completely flat.
He looks up at the ceiling a moment, then he looks back at Garith, his hand moving away from the hilt of his sword and flexes his fingers gently.
Then he forces a smile on his face.
”You want to be the bloody oyabun than I got no problem with that. You want to give out orders, I’ll obey them if those are orders,” he says with a calm voice through a plastered smile.
”But here’s the thing, and I’ll try to be as pleasant as I can on this – we got a quest to do and I ain’t got all day to wait around.”
”There are half a dozen lads in this little company. We could be telling tales of glory and honor; we could be chatting about great deeds and epic adventures. We could be sharing jokes and stories and tales and fun experiences even while we’re waiting for something interesting to come along.”
”Instead we do no talk; we do no interaction. All we do is go from knife-fight to knife-fight and that’s it.”
”If we’re not killing things, then we just sit around and heal up before we kill things again.”
He glances from Garith to the others.
”In any other reincarnation I’d be sharing tales with Zeriax about the old county; I’d be practicing sparring with you and Mal; I’d be talking about cool animals and kick-ass magic with my old Stoneskin and I’d maybe flirt a little with Angel-chan if I wasn’t learning how her folk did their killing.”
He rolls his head back and forth, his gaze not wavering.
”In any other Plane of existence you’d think that’d be the way of it, savvy? I mean, you’d think that the gods themselves would be happy to see us all breathe life into the quest we’re on with the tales we tell and the story we make with our steel; wits; cunning; luck and creativity.”
”You’d think that people would be so excited to see how the gods damned quest unfolded that they’d be using whatever poxing sorcery or tech they had to be checking what happens on this little mission with a bloody regular basis! If there was nothing but bloody knife-fight’s they’d be adding their own breath to the joy of the story so we could all enjoy things better.”
He looks at Garith and shakes his head.
”But you know what I see instead? I see a group of mates who are so bored with this little quest that the very idea of talking or listening to what others say comes off as nothing more than a bloody chore – like it’s some kind of pain in the ass because they got better and more exciting things to do.”
”So here’s the juice: I told everyone what I wanted to do. Maybe you didn’t notice what I said – but the thing is; there are other lads here and I bet some of them noticed what I said and didn’t even bother to interact with me. In fact, I’m sure of it, because I know for a fact that Mal heard me; but instead of responding he picked up a book and read to himself.”
He grunts in disgust.
”Yeah – that’s really ‘breathing life into the quest we’re on with tales we tell’. He could have said something to me, or interacted, or done just about anything – but he didn’t because he had better things to do.”
He shakes his head.
”You know what the hilarious thing is? The hilarious thing is that we could be having an epic quest that’s so poxing amazing to deal with that we’d all be bloody eager to see where it goes and none of us knows where that is – but nope, not happening,” he adds with growing frustration.
He watches Garith for a moment, his eyes softening and sighs.
”What really burns me up is that while we wait for the gods to pushing the next piece of action to us, we could do something - the two of us; you and me, you know?"
"Hell, right now you could get all mad at me for this big speech, you know? And then maybe you could draw your sword and duel me for supremacy of the Clan, and a pox on what the rest of the group thinks, you know? Or maybe they could maybe just sit back and enjoy the show if they got nothing to add.”
"Some people enjoy a duel just for glory and honor. If I'm pissing you off, than deal with me - Ryu Tadamasa - draw steel and duel, or back-hand me; or do something cool, you know?"
He looks around at the others.
"And if that ain't your speed, what about the rest of this crew, you know?"
”Like, maybe Zeriax here will toss in some bits of lore or wisdom from Tian Xi – and he and I talk philosophy or the different versions of Zen and all that; and the two of us enjoy the talk if no one else wants to toss in anything constructive.”
”Or maybe my ol’ Stoneskin will come with me back to that little Slime-guy we saw earlier and we’ll figure out a kick-ass way to bottle that little guy and bring him along with us.”
”If that happened I’d enjoy the damn talk. In fact, I’d find the conversation alone more interesting than the step-by-step walk we have to make through these caves to each new battle.”
He wipes his hand over his face.
”But that’s what I’d like to see.”
”I’m from a different life – a different incarnation than most other folks, I guess.”
”My kami’s from a place that they teach the axiom – Life’s a journey, not a destination – you know? That’s my culture; that’s my life and how I see things.”
”I like a long conversation. I like a good story. I’m actually willing to keep coming back to see how things unfold – not because I give a damn about resting in this stone room until my wounds are properly healed and I can go kill the next enemy – in fact, that’s pretty much the last thing I care about, personally.”
”I care about the journey – the adventure. In fact, if there was a guide to my quest I’d throw it in funeral pier – I wouldn’t want to know what happens next; I’d want to make what happens next, and I’d be excited to see it play out to the point that I’d add to the tale as much as I can and as often as I can – not because it’s a bloody chore, but because it’s something fun that I’d want to do.”
He takes a deep breath and looks around at the others than he looks back at Garith.
”Yeah; but I’m a bloody freak who talks too much and wants too much action,” he says with a little sigh.
Taking a deep breath he composes himself formally.
”Gomennasi, Garith-sama,” he says with a low bow.
”The purpose of a samurai is simple; duty, discipline and death. I will obey your orders about the door for now.”
"We should take the letter and the prayerbook back to the surface with us. They are proof of what has been going on down here, and the involvement and conspiracy with those above."
Ryu looks over at Maelchar.
"Fine with me, Mal," he says with a neutral voice about the letter.
"What information have you to add to this?"
Ryu stands formally behind Garith at this point and slightly to his right.
His hand rest easily on the hilt of his sword and he watches the wards with them with flat eyes.
He will let Garith do the talking, but it is clear that if they do not show proper respect to his liege lord, he may be do something to encourage courtesy in the form of a prompt response.