Lyntel's eyes narrow in fury at the sight of her mother, and then widen again in shock at the sight of her savior charging her.
She backpedals into the crack, hoping to move back just far enough to where the larger and heavily armored Bathilda will not be able to attack as easily.
Once safe within the crack, Lyntel once again attempts to draw the enchantment towards her, spreading and dissipating its effect on her new friend. However, this time her voice is clearly tainted by rage.
Dhice was just emerging from the crack as Lyntel comes charging back into it. Figuring there must be a good reason for the sudden retreat, he also steps backwards, deeper into the crack, making room for Lyntel in front of him.
Not being able to see much of anything until Bathilda engages and reaches in violently, the channeler is slow on the reaction. When it finally becomes clear that Bathilda has been ensorcelled, he decides that it's time to call in some non-lethal but useful support. "Muppy, we're going to need your help again buddy..."
A *huge* smile flicks across Dhice's face as he feels the eager response from his new pal. The channel is perfect, and Muppy rushes into the Material World at full strength. This time Dhice channels him into a "Forceful" form, causing him to manifest as a floating block of stone about the size of Bathilda's torso.
"Let's clear our sleep-walking friend out of harm's way, shall we Muppy?" The channeler gets ready to command his pet...
Emma is going to dart round the stone corridor to the left (top of the map) and get in between the Skaven and Lyntel's mother.
Archepex: To effectively draw and fire the bow in combat - as in, firing shot after shot, not gradually drawing back for a snipe - you'd need to move fast enough that you become visible. As your arrow whistles in and impacts on the barbarian's borrowed battleaxe, the northmost Rat-Ogre Knight notices you. With a rodent-like squeal as if amplified by a huge bass subwoofer, the Knight readies his tower shield, blocking nearly his whole body, and charges you! In seconds, you'll be smeared against the wall behind you by the creature's charge. It doesn't even look like he's looking where he's going, so going invisible is unlikely to help. What do you do?
Bathilda, from within the recesses of your own mind you can hear Lyntel's voice, urging you to resist, to fight it. Gain +2 to your next roll to break free, and try to reach into the crack and strangle Lyntel so she can't speak further. Lyntel gets a +1 circumstance bonus to her Defy Danger while she's hiding in the crack, and a shadow covers the crack you're trying to reach inside as the elemental known as Muppy looms up behind you...
Dhice, you're allowed to take an action with the elemental you just summoned as soon as you summon it, that's no problem. As long as you aren't overwhelming me with a whole bunch of differing action rolls, I can allow you some greater 'action economy' for your posts.
Meanwhile, Emma races along the northern wall of the room, darting behind the huge pillar as the Rat-Ogre Knight nearest to her charges Archepex. The Knight from further south moves to intercept, but isn't fast enough. The paladin climbs up onto the queen's dais, and bats aside the puff of powder that the Queen tries to blow into her face without breathing any of it in. ()
"Come any closer, and I'll kill the singer's mother!" the Witch Mother cries out, terror tinging her authoritative voice as you stalk toward her, weapon out. The Rat-Ogre Knight from the south is charging up the dais at you, Emma, even as you see the Rat Queen diving into her box of sweets and fishing something out with her gnarled fingers, what do you do?
Grigor rushes out to confront one of the rat-ogre knights.
Hack and Slash for damage and a complication.
Bathilda growls as she reaches in after Lyntel and tries to wrap her fingers around the elf's throat.
Bathilda's hands grab the bard by the throat and squeeze like a vice. The lanky mercenary begins to pull Lyntel out of the crack and back into the open.
Which Knight, Grigor, the one charging Archepex or the one leaping to the Queen's aid? Describe: How do you hack and slash this heavily armored opponent wielding a tower shield and a lance?
Dhice sees Bathilda make another attempt to claw at Lyntel and thinks that's about enough of that! "Muppy, push!" he shouts.
The bobbing block of stone moves inexorably into Bathilda causing minor (damage) but more importantly there is a surprising amount of Force behind the stone, pushing Bathilda well out of reach of Lyntel.
Still, the powerful barbarian is a force of her own, and this act drains Muppy's power slightly.
Bathilda lets out a cry of surprise as she's pushed away from the crack.
Lyntel panics for a moment as Bathilda's vice like hand closes on her throat and begins to pull her into the open. In that moment she thinks of her one clear memory of her mother during her captivity.
Mother: Lyntel, I have seen it. You will be free. And you must promise me. You must promise not to give up, or to give in. Kill the rat hag, even if I must die. Promise!
Lyntel digs deep down, and jams her arms in legs sideways into the crack, hoping to wedge herself sufficiently to endure the Barbarian's attempts to pull her out into the open.
As the Barbarian's claw is wrenched free by Muppy's attack, Lyntel regains her voice.
Kill the Queen! My mother would rather die than see her escape!
Emma flat out ignores the charging Rat-Ogre, focussing solely on the Witch Mother. Making sure to block line of sight between Lyntels mother and the Queen, she advances.
"The life of an innocent is nothing compared to the atrocities that you may commit in the future." Emma intones. "You shall not have her. Know that I would slaughter her if it would hasten your death. But you shall not have her."
EDIT:
With Bathilda moved temporarily out of range, Dhice commands Muppy to engage with the Knight who's trying to interfere with Emma.
The stone block charges across the room and slams into the Knight, knocking him away from Emma and causing damage. He sends the heavily armored knight flying!
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Archepex turns and runs toward the wall the ogre wants to splatter him upon! As he runs he stores his bow over his shoulder. Just as the ogre is closing Archepex runs up the wall and uses the top of the Ogre's shield to vault over and onto the beats shoulders!
In a flash Archepex has his new sword out and is plunging it into the gap between the helmet and breastplate!
The one rushing to the queen's aid. I rush towards the behemoth, go low and attempt to get him to lower his shield to stop my upper-cut, and at the last second leap up a take a great swing at his (hopefully) exposed neck.
In the crack in the wall, there's a brief but terrifying struggle as the brainwashed barbarian gives everything she has to try to kill the elven bard. Lyntel successfully wedges herself in the crack long enough for Dhice to come to her aid. With a grunt of exhaled air as the wind is knocked out of her by Muppy, Bathilda is tossed bodily aside and rolls to a fallen heap. Dhice's elemental clacks its rocky hands together in triumph as it regards its fallen target.
Bathilda, the magic commands you to rise, but needing to rise gives you another roll to try and break her control. Then you may roll again - after charging Muppy and trying to rip off its rocky head to destroy it. Since the Queen's very occupied with Emma all up in her grill, she can't issue you more specific commands, so you're kind of just in mindless rage attack-mode.
Lyntel and Dhice, you see Muppy moving to engage Bathilda and keep her too occupied to continue attacking. Meanwhile, you see the anti-paladin stalking toward the Queen, and you know from looking at her that she will not stay her blade for any purpose, least of all mercy to a prisoner. In the instant before it happens, Lyntel knows that her mother is truly lost.
Emma, you charge the Queen viciously, but due to your partial success, not fast enough to stop her from giving one of the rings on her fingers a savage twist. Without warning, Lyntel's mother's head is twisted similarly, forced all the way around by the sympathetic vibrations of the magic ring the Queen wears. A sickening crack is the last sound the elf woman's mother makes as she crumbles nervelessly to the floor of the cage overhead.
Emma makes her pay for it. With a vicious swing, the antipaladin pulls a Luke Skywalker on the queen, cutting her hand clean off and sending it flying through the air. The Queen wails in pain and scrambles backward off the Throne, falling heavily to the stone floor and bleeding profusely. She clutches her severed stump and begins whispering to it frantically.
Meanwhile, the Rat-Ogre Knight that had been trying to stop you has reached you. You're suddenly smashed in the knee by his metal greaved foot as he climbs up and kicks you fiercely, down low. You snarl, and just as you're about to counterattack..
"AAAAGGGHHHH!!" screams Grigor as he charges the Knight. Due to the Knight paying attention to Emma, Grigor is able to tackle the heavy Ogre's legs. It feels like tackling a tree trunk, but Grigor pushes everything through that he can to knock the Rat-Ogre off balance.
As it falls, its tower shield clocks Grigor right in the temple. Take 1d8+1d6 damage, Grigor, and you're a little wobbly on your feet, -1 to Dex rolls until you have a quiet moment to clear your head.
Your head may slightly be spinning, but you stand above the Rat-Ogre where he fell. The armored rat-ogre is struggling to stand from where he landed on the stairs leading up to the throne.
Meanwhile, Archepex is demonstrating the agility of the elves. With an effortless-looking backwards double somersault, the elf ranger draws his blade and uses the backward momentum from vaulting off the Knight's shield to drag his swords deeper into his foe's neck. Thanks to his expert targeting, his attack ignores the Rat-Ogre's armor, and sinks into flesh deeply, causing the Knight to squeal in pain.
The Rat-Ogre sinks to his knees with Archepex digging the sword deeper from where he stands atop his shoulders. Staggering up again, the Knight refuses to die, and backs up rapidly to try and smash Archepex against the stone pillar! What do you do?
The thing about rearing back is one can only go back so far. Archepex feels the shift in weight and simply steps forward. This would normally be a death sentence as one would step into thin air. These particular rat knights, however, are using tower shields.
Archepex simply steps up a little onto the top of the shield and moves forward a foot or so with one foot on a shoulder and the other on the shield. His weight pins the shield to the ground as the impact on the pillar, the rat's own attack, provides the opportunity he needs. The rat's head slams back with his body as the beast attempts to smear Archepex (who is no longer there) into putty. Archepex is waiting and drives his blade down into front side of the rat's neck! He doesn't quite have the leverage or momentum of last time, but he does have a trump card. Mule.
As he is withdrawing his gore covered blade he uses the pommel to knock the knight's helmet off! Mule dives for the exposed head and starts pecking at the rat's eyes!
With Bathilda moved temporarily out of range, Dhice commands Muppy to engage with the Knight who's trying to interfere with Emma. Elemental Attack: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 6) + 3 = 11
The stone block charges across the room and slams into the Knight, knocking him away from Emma and causing 1d4 ⇒ 2 damage. He sends the heavily armored knight flying!
Bathilda rises to her feet once more and goes after Muppy as the crack of breaking bone echos in the chamber. She can't do much to the rocky creature, but she tries anyway as Emma begins to strike.
The Witchmother's scream is echoed by Bathilda as she falls over, clutching her head. The magic controlling her feeds all of the rage, fear and pain into the young woman's mind. The link breaks, but not before Bathilda lies on the floor whimpering in pain as the magic backlash tears through her. She's no longer under the Witchmother's power, but she's not in great shape either.
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"Grigor, deal with it." says Emma, not looking around. She stares at the Mother. "She is beyond your reach now. Your filthy brood is fallen. Your world collapses around you." Emma takes two steps forward and plants a foot in the rats neck.
Lyntel pushes out of the crack just in time to see her mother die. She grits her teeth and charges the rat queen, heedless of the rest of the battle. She runs up to the rat queen and begins repeatedly kicking her in the side of the head.
Muppy gets tangled up with Bathilda as she wails away at him, eventually working her way free of the mind control. The blows don't really phyically damage the elemental, although they do weaken his presence.
Dhice sees Lyntel rush up towards Emma and Grigor, so he moves over to where Archepex is dealing with the other knight. The clever ranger's tactics have him in good position, so Dhice tries to help by simply distracting the knight with his presence, feinting at him with his quarterstaff. While he seems to succeed in distracting the rat-ogre knight, he steps a little to close and puts himself in harm's way in the process.
Grigor takes damage from the rat-ogre knight. He then starts frantically stabbing down, trying to pin cushion the beast before it can get its feet under it.
Hack and Slash doing points of damage (+2 piercing, messy, forceful) and taking a complication.
Muppy takes some hits from his target, but not for long. The elemental quickly sees that now that she has broken free, Bathilda is no longer a threat. The barbarian, released from the Witch's mind control, is able to taste that the "truffle" she was fed from the Witch's box of candies was actually a worm-filled dirt clod, infused with foul magics. Nauseated and with a bad nosebleed, the barbarian empties the contents of her stomach all over the floor, vomiting uncontrollably for a time. -1 to Con Mod forward due to your shakiness, Bathilda.
The elemental leaves Bathilda and stomps across the room to where Grigor and Emma are doing battle on the throne's dais.
Grigor can hear the stomping coming, but he's in a bit of a rage himself in the heat of battle. Falling down to his knees atop the Rat-Ogre Knight's chestpiece, the fighter drives his sword down with both hands into the creature's neck. Stab stab stab goes the sword as fast as it can, sending the Rat-Ogre Knight into his death throes. Flailing around with insane strength, the Rat-Ogre Knight smashes Grigor in the face with the pommel of his lance. Take 1d10+3 damage and you're thrown clear, Grigor, flying a few feet and landing heavily on your back at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the throne. You lift your upper body up again (painfully) - and look over to the Rat-Ogre Knight that you had been fighting.
Throwing you off was practically its last act, Grigor, as you pretty much mortally wounded it. As it lays on the dais bleeding, Muppy stomps up and performs the coup de grace by stepping on its face. The rocks that make up Muppy's feet crush the hapless Rat-Ogre to a bloody paste. 1 down!
Meanwhile, Dhice and Archepex are struggling to bring down the other Queen Defender. Mule is smashed with a backhanded palm slap with an armored gauntlet and his body collides with the wall before sliding down to the floor, stunned. Mule's out of the fight and you take 1d10 damage, Archepex, but you deal your damage to the Rat-Ogre. Dhice arrives to help and knocks the huge Knight off-balance with his quarterstaff, but the Knight's lance has equal reach, and you take a stab to the shoulder from it - take 1d10 yourself, channeler.
Archepex and Dhice both climb to their feet again, just out of reach, as the Knight struggles to stand by pressing his back against the column. He's bleeding heavily, and seems unable to move, but he's bracing himself against the column to stand up and he's still holding his weapons at the ready. The Knight breathes heavily as blood flows down over his armor and drips to the floor. His tower shield provides little defense as he's pretty much just using it as a crutch at this point. He glares at the two of you in defiance, but you can't make out his expression very well behind that faceguard of his helmet. What do you do?
Up on the Queen's dais, next to the throne where the Witchmother lies, Emma coldly looks down at the fallen rat. Feebly, the fat Queen tries to raise a claw in her own defense, but Emma bats it aside with effortless impatience. She opens her mouth to speak, but the paladin is too smart to allow that. Her boot closes the Witchmother's windpipe and the Rat-Queen begins to choke. This is when Lyntel arrives.
Tears of hurt and anger flowing unbidden down her face, the elf bard tries not to look at the hanging cage where her mother's body still lies contained, her neck twisted at a bad angle. She doesn't pay any heed to the fallen Rat-Ogre Knight. Rage fills her muscles with a fury she didn't know she possessed, and as Emma keeps the Queen pinned, Lyntel begins harshly kicking at her head.
The antipaladin looks on with a grim sense of satisfaction as Lyntel exacts her revenge, dispassionately holding her foot down on the Rat-Queen's neck to prevent her escape. She must accept her punishment for her misdeeds. Violently, the elf gives everything she's got into kicking her mother's murderer in the face, beating her viciously. She's looking like she's about to lose consciousness from the treatment. Lyntel, do you continue on in this way? Emma, do you allow it? If so, the Queen will be dead from her injuries within a few moments - if she even survives the damage she's already sustained.
Dhice finds himself exposed and surprised by the reach of the lance, taking damage from the knight's lance. Fortunately he succeeds in knocking if off balance, leaving an opening for the more melee-trained Archepex.
After taking the blow he simply steps away surveys the scene. Seeing Lyntel about to pulverize the witch queen, he calls out to Emma, "We need some answers here, Emma. The best vengeance is not just the Queen's death, but the death of all she's worked towards as well."
Bathilda gets up. and moves to the rat b*~@@ that had futzed with her head. Lyntel would get her revenge, but only after Bathilda got in some licks as well. She shoves both Emma and Lyntel out of the way and grabs the Witchmother by the folds of fat about her neck, her hands twisting them like a pair of iron vices. Raw, red fury is on her face as she turns to Emma.
"Keep her alive," she commands the paladin in a cold, almost calm voice, her head jerking to the Witchmother writhing in her grasp before it turns to level a fury-filled glower into the Witchmother.
"Call off your sex-toy, and let him know I'll force feed his dick to him in very tiny pieces if he doesn't drop his weapon. If you don't you'll be the one eating it as I shove each bloody piece down your throat and then shove a pike up your fat, raggedy ass and kill you in the most painful way I can."
Bathilda's eyes blaze with a hatred that leaves no doubt about whether or not she is capable and willing to follow through on her threat.
Bathilda, you need to fight down a wave of nausea and a cluster headache that threatens to bring you to your knees when you rise. Defy Danger : CON, and if you succeed your post will go as planned. If you fail, you fall back down and throw up some more. A partial success means you stagger and puke again, but don't fall - you just bend double and spew for a few moments before wiping your mouth and continuing with your original actions. Your penalty to CON means you'll be rolling an unmodified 2d6.
Also you need to bear in mind that not only is Emma standing over the Witch Queen with her boot to the throat, but Lyntel is also there, applying the beatings. So you'd need to get her to hold off before your threats would even be heard.
Bathilda tries to stand up, but only manages to make her headache worse and empty the rest of her stomach out. She manages to at least move away before collapsing in a heap on the ground.
You roll over and stare at the ceiling of the throne room, as that's all you can manage doing. Your head feels like it's violently expanding outwards from within, the pain is so intense that it blurs your vision.
Lyntel pushes out of the crack just in time to see her mother die. She grits her teeth and charges the rat queen, heedless of the rest of the battle. She runs up to the rat queen and begins repeatedly kicking her in the side of the head.
Dhice sees Bathilda's eyes wild with hate as she tries to stand to charge the rat queen. While she falls over in a disgusting mess, it's clear that nobody seems very interested in halting the beating before any chance of interrogating the queen is lost.
Knowing that he may have to deal with three *very* upset women, he decides to command Muppy to intervene. "Separate the queen from the others, boy, and pin her down!"
Muppy comes out of nowhere and pushes himself between Lyntel and the queen, separating them enough to end the manic beating. Then he tries to push the rat queen down. But the queen perhaps has some other trick up her sleeve.
Lyntel pounds her fists helplessly against Muppy's stone body for a few seconds as she is separated from the Queen. Then she collapses in despair, unable to choke back the sobs that cause her whole body to convulse as the tears flow freely.
After taking on his murder-spree, Grigor grinds forward towards the remaining rat-ogre knight, heaving and breathing quite heavily from his exertions. He then starts stabbing and swinging around his shield at the creature's lower extremities, opening (hopefully) his upper to attacks from Grigor's cohorts.
Hack and Slash for damage (+2 piercing, messy, forceful) and a complication for the beat-down fighter.
Archepex strides back on against the nearly dead rat ogre and attacks despite Grigor's attacks. Overkill never killed anyone, but it helped in making sure they stayed dead. While Grigor aims low, Archepex goes high.
Emma looks a little dissapointed, but then is back to business. "Dhice, hold the b*tch down. I need to cut off her other hand. Unless you want to do it Lyntel?"
Grigor staggers across the throne room as the Rat Queen is restrained. His eyes are wild and bloodshot. I don't just mean a little bloodshot, like maybe he smoked a little weed or something. No, Grigor's got the burst blood vessel in his head look going on, with redness filling the whole white area of his eye.
He doesn't care at all. The head injury he sustained from the other Knight's tower shield striking him in the temple has left him feeling woozy, wobbling on his feet as he charges the other Knight. He screams wildly, and it goes on and on as he pours his whole life into that scream.
He gathers up all of his strength and leaps at the single remaining Knight, broadsword raised. With a deep, furious stab, he kills the massive Skaven abomination....
But his body, weighing well over 300 pounds and clad in full plate armor, collapses on the fighter when he dies. Take 1d8 damage. If this damage reduces you to 0 or less, roll your Last Breath with no modifiers.
Archepex, you ensure that the Rat-Ogre is not merely faking. However, you see Grigor's hand as the only visible part of him under the thing's bulk, and his fingers are twitching.
Lyntel is right, Dhice, no need for the holding-down-the-queen roll, Emma's got that covered. Muppy just provides a hard surface for the elven woman to cry on.
Emma, your metal-clad foot is on the Queen's neck, and Lyntel just finished beating the crap out of her. She's barely conscious, and not resisting any further.
Take 1d8 damage. If this damage reduces you to 0 or less, roll your Last Breath with no modifiers.
Do I get armor and/or shield for that?
Yup. Doesn't ignore armor, since your scale mail and shield could prevent your internal organs from being crushed... You could survive this.
Grigor is crushed for of damage.
From under to rat-ogre corpse you heard a muffled, but bellowing "Sucka', you ain't sheeit!"