for 3 points, since I assume no armor.
Defend Dhice , holding 1.
Hit em' hard, Dhice!"
Another arrow springs into existence and streaks upward
It knocks one of the skaven's bows out of its hands!
Lyntel, you cast about yourself and see that from your angle, there's a barely-visible doorway far in the back of the throne room, presumably where the Queen enters the Court to address the elves in the room. Aside from the clerks' hallway exit, and the main door, there are no other entrances or exits to this throne room.
Meanwhile, the wind from Dhice's raging wind elemental is picking up in speed as it whirls around the tight throne room space, growing more and more infuriated by the second at its confinement. The gale-force winds hurl Milo upward, and he manages to grab hold of one of the high-up rafters directly in front of one of the Skaven crossbowmen! Let's see a Hack and Slash roll as you enter combat with it, Milo!
Grigor, your armor applies since the crossbow bolts (in the fiction) impacted right on your shield. That means you take 0 damage from the crossbow bolts and they are harmlessly embedded in your shield. As you defend Dhice, the chain-wielding Skaven that were scattered by Lyntel's fireball are regrouping! As one moves around to flank you, trying to get an opening to strike at Dhice, the other one whirls its chain overhead and manages to latch on to your gauntlet! You feel its heavy weight and impact driving you down and have a -1 to all rolls involving your right hand for the moment, but your fundamental success means you take no damage. You're being tugged closer to the rat as he pulls you off-balance. However, both you and your assailant attacking you are being lifted nearly off your feet by Dhice's winds! In seconds, even you will be pushed off your firmly grounded stance, and it's already taking a loud shout even to be heard! What do you do?
Up near the roof, Archepex looses another arrow, but he faces an ugly choice when Milo, the newcomer human, daringly leaps into harm's way by attacking the archer himself! They're tussling with each other right now, so if you fired at them directly, you'd have to roll a 2 on a 1d2 to deal damage to the Rat instead of [b]Milo.[b/] Alternatively, you can fire at the third rafters-gunner, but you'll have to take what you can get and you'll deal -1d4 damage. What do you choose?
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Archepex hisses in annoyance and drops his shoulder a fraction of an inch to compensate. The arrow flies true.
In a flash be had another arrow knocked and drawn, sacrificing the invisibility of his arms. This one streaks toward the head of the burly rat who just hooked Grigor.
Milo PREFERS to fight from behind where he can take advantage of a distracted foe, but he'll take what he can get. Landing on the rafter, he takes a stab with his rapier at one of the archers
Lyntel begins singing an ancient elven ballad on the beauty of the arcane, focusing on the channeler.
Dhice! Get that thing under control! . The bardizard changes her song and begins focusing her magic on Dhice, feeding him power as they had practiced around the campfire. I'll help you!
Dhice concentrates all of his energy on regaining control of the Elemental. When he first summoned it, he thought the attempt was doomed to failure, but in fact the Air elemental did manifest, but in a fashion he'd never experienced before.
As he tries to come to grips with these chaotic forces he finally finds the handle, and establishes a level of . But exercising that control is requiring an effort that's unprecedented, and the strain causes him to lose a bit of grip AND it shreds his arms even further
Having finally wrested some degree of control over the great Elemental, the Channeler embraces the conduit that Lyntel establishes with him and bends his mind and body to the task of focusing the Elemental's energy. He sees the nefarious advisor behind his magical barrier, and decides to try to disrupt his concentration. "Rip the dais from the floor, great Air Spirit!" he In a half-whispered tone, he adds, "and try not to hurt the Queen too much..."
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It takes nearly miraculous aim to fire anything in this tempest and hope to strike your target. Despite your perfect shot, Archepex, the heavy winds from Dhice's elemental cause your arrow to spin off harmlessly to the side. With such heavy winds everywhere in this room, archery is not a winning strategy. Due to the forums robbing you of a good roll due to circumstances, I'll give you a pity +1 to your next roll.
Meanwhile, Lyntel is clinging to a torch sconce on the wall with one hand by necessity, to steady herself against the gale-force winds. She has to shout, and even then her words can barely be heard over the storm - but she successfully warps the Weave in such a way as to benefit her friend immensely regardless.
The adaptive wizard/bard is used to learning vastly different kinds of magic, and now is no exception. So successful is her attempt to help Dhice that the magic he channels uses her lifeforce as a stabilizing anchor to Dhice's physical-plane conduit. Lyntel's eyes blaze into a brilliant white color as the wind energy disperses itself between her and the human, dividing the turbulence. With her arcane vision, the wizard can see the excess energy building up in Dhice's forearms, and dispels it by focusing it in upon herself. Dhice, the mechanical impact of this is that you don't actually take the shredding damage to your forearms - the pain is completely negated by the bard's magic.
Empowered by the elf's assistance, Dhice's voice takes on new authority. "Rip the dais from the floor, great Air Spirit!" he commands, and the swirling winds slow for the first time. Without an obvious head, it's difficult to tell for certain, but the elemental appears to be regarding Dhice. For a moment, the wind continues to howl, and you feel uncertainty...then the Air Elemental turns to your will, focusing all its energy on the throne's dais. This has the effect of calming the winds everywhere but on the throne itself. Within the nobleman's shield, the two elves are protected, but you can see alarm growing on the noble's face as the sounds of splintering wood begin to fill the air. The dais isn't completely torn up, but the wind elemental is causing some tremendous damage to it! Inside the shield, the nobleman is starting to create some grand, sweeping hand gestures with his arms, the shield flickering.
Up above, Milo is still tangling with an archer. Luckily, an arrow whistled just past the thief without striking him - another inch to the left and you would've been skewered, Milo, you're sure of it. Still, it worked out, and your rapier stabs home very close by to where the arrow punctured the rat.
You've obviously killed this archer, Archer 1 - you see the light starting to leave the rat's eyes. As it falls from the rafters, however, it grabs hold of your tunic and pulls you down with it! What do you do?
As the elf noble begins to panic, Lyntel yells at him. Stand down and I will keep my friends from killing you.
Drop the field, let her go, and surrender and you will live! I swear it before the old gods!
Archepex invisibly knocks another arrow. He starts counting quickly to himself in an attempt to discern a pattern to the shield's flicker. If he can predict a long enough failure he might be able to get an arrow through without the shield fully dropping.
What here is useful to me?
There are no other active combatants on the ground, right Moosh?
Milo has little choice but to fall...but every control on how to land
He spins as he falls, letting the dead Skaven cushion his fall.
Emma is fine with taking up her position again by Lyntel for the next few moments.
Between the fire, Archepex's archery, and the violent winds of the air elemental that Dhice summoned, the Skaven guards have been slain.
The elf noble within the field sees this. He's visibly sweating; beads of perspiration mark his brow. His dark, narrow eyes flick quickly from each of you.
"I was getting bored of her anyway!" he cries, dropping the shield covering himself and immediately gesturing. The Elf Queen slumps forward in her chair. Archepex, your keen study of the elven noble sees something fall from the noble's sleeve as he moves his hands, quickly.
You can attempt to interrupt in some way before his left hand can touch the ring on his right hand, but it'd require a modified 12 or higher.
Otherwise, the tip of his middle finger touches the ring, and the noble disappears. The Elf Queen is dangerously close to tumbling from her throne.
Regardless of Archepex's success or failure, Lyntel rushes towards the queen, singing a nursery rhyme common among the midwives that serve Elven nobility.
The bard grabs hold of the Queen to steady her, a crime punishable by exile in normal circumstances.
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Archepex releases on instinct, his mind and body working as one to direct the arrow where his gut told him it needed to go.
The arrow leaps from the bow before the shield actually goes down. As the shield folds the arrow follows it in. As the vile elf's left hand moves to his right, Archepex's arrow hits, skewering his hand and knocking whatever he had away.
Now he had to trust Grigor and Emma to take advantage of the opportunity.
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Grigor, seeing his companion's plan, charges up the dias and swings his broadsword in a mighty arc down on top of the ring.
... and desperately hopes he didn't just hit his own foot.
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The air elemental takes to the upper layers of air above the party, circling overhead and looking down on the mess below, awaiting further instruction from the channeler it’s connected to. Meanwhile, an incredible series of events takes place within the space of less than 6 seconds.
”IIIIII wwwwwwaaaaasssssss ggeettttinggggg borrrrredddd offfff herrrr aaannnnnnyyyyyyywwwwwwaaaaaayyyyyy….” the elven noble is saying, in slow motion, as he releases the concentration needed to maintain his impenetrable barrier. As soon as the very tip top of the barrier begins to descend, Archepex’s arrow is loosed, with historic elven accuracy, directly at his slender hands, which were already in motion. Lyntel, nearby, is already focused on assisting the queen, and is gathering magic in the form of small motes of light to her throat and voice. The lights gather about her hands as she races toward the collapsing Queen’s body.
The metal arrowhead of Archepex’s arrow scrapes the falling magical barrier as it slips past, and makes impact directly on the knuckle of the elven noble.
the noble cries in pain and anguish as the arrow severs his finger at the knucklebone! The elf clutches his bleeding hand in pain and doubles over as the ring, with the finger still thrust through its loop, bounces down off the dais and to the ground. Grigor immediately leaps into action, the fighter swinging his longsword at the ring quickly, but the piece of jewelry is powerfully enspelled and the magical protections on it rebuff his attack. With a loud, high-pitched tiiiiiinnnnngggg sound, the fighter is thrown backward from the force of the magical aura protecting the ring, knocking his broadsword away and sending him careening into a pillar. Mark an XP and take 1d8 damage from the impact on your back, Grigor. Does not ignore armor.
Meanwhile, Lyntel, in her moment of selfless sacrifice, taps an unknown well of dedication within her that she wasn’t even aware that she had. The magic responds to her song faster than ever before, reaching out to restore the Queen’s strength to her muscles. As the bard/wizard catches the Queen, a transformation can be seen on the Elfchild’s face – lines of weariness, of oppression, of subjugation to the advisor elf’s foul whisperings are cast away, restoring her legendary beauty to her face. Lyntel catches and holds her securely in her arms before the Queen falls from her throne, and the Queen begins to return to consciousness and awareness. ”What is…” she begins, then clutches her head in pain as if from a headache.
Emma paces over to the ring/finger combination, and picks it up swiftly, aura not-withstanding.
We are friends, my Queen. This will pass.
Lyntel continues the soothing nursery rhyme, refocusing her attention on the gem she pulls from her pocket.
She tosses the gem on the floor near Archepex, and it quickly grows.
Her song continues:
Lock the bad man far away, to deal with him another day, mother says we'll make him pay, and keep his evil far away ...
As Grigor raises his broadsword, black lightning crackles behind Emma's eyeballs. She has no idea. As far as she knows, she's just seeing what will happen to the ring next.
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The light from the magics surrounding the noble had cast dark shadows on various corners of the throne room. As Grigor makes ready to swing his sword, Emma makes a small, imperceptible gesture in its direction. The shadows in her area twist and bend momentarily, and the magical defenses protecting the ring's enchantment are shattered. The ring breaks apart under Grigor's sundering blow, and gets a little finger-blood on Grigor's sword.
The elven noble is kneeling and clutching his bleeding hand, issuing forth a long string of curses in High Elven, while the Elfchild Queen is barely conscious. Outside the courtroom, you can start to hear the clamouring of a crowd gathering...
As Emma and Grigor take care of the ring Archepex stalks forward and grabs the noble by his neck. He hauls the man to the expanding gem and tosses him in.
Dhice command the Air Elemental to sweep the shocked and bleeding "advisor" into the gem-cage. With a swirl of air the great force descends and whips into a frenzy, lifting the advisor up off his feet and depositing him unceremoniously inside the gem.
At that point, he relinquishes his control over the elemental, thanks it for its assistance, and bids it farewell.
He's not entirely certain if it'll go back of its own free will though. This isn't Muppy folks.
Milo looks down from the rafters. Is there an easy way to get down, or will he need to climb/flip?
Once the noble is inside the cage, Lyntel refocuses her magic once again, continuing the song.
The gem then closes behind her, and Lyntel gestures for Archepex to pick it up.
When he's thrust inside the gem, the noble immediately begins shouting and pounding his fists against the interior walls of his tiny prison. After a few seconds of this, he turns his back on all of you and begins focusing on something he is staring at intently in his lap. From behind him you can see the occasional flash of light appearing from his concealed fists. The light begins to flash according to a specific rhythm.
Meanwhile, the Queen has had her enchantment lifted and is physically restored and healed by Lyntel's magic. Shaking her head and blinking her eyes, the Elf-Queen - who resembles a child of no more than 10 in appearance, but nonetheless is one of the wisest of all elves - looks up at her rescuer. "Who...are you?" she finally manages.
Milo, outside of combat it's easy enough for you to jump down without harming yourself. You're a natural acrobat - it's usually only in the dire context of battle that you need to roll for simple movement.
It would take a very powerful magic - on par with the magical ability of a minor dragon, ifrit, or similar spirit - to permit him to leave the enspelled jewel. It's doubtful that this noble, no matter how powerful, could escape with the magic capability he's demonstrated so far. That doesn't seem to be his aim...
My name is Lyntel. These are my friends. You've been under some sort of enchantment, but are now free. This man has been working with the Skaven, and I fear that there are many more sympathizers nearby. Lyntel gestures back to the noble in the gem and notices what the miscreant is up to.
Emma, would you mind seeing to the gentleman?
Would your bardic knowledge have included knowledge of morse code?
Would your bardic knowledge have included knowledge of morse code?
There is something oddly familiar about that rhythm...
Emma speaks quietly but firmly to the noble, as one might to a recalcitrant horse or beaurocrat. "Neither your hands, eyes or genitals are a prerequisite for your survival. Cease your spellcasting or you stay with us will be... Unpleasant."
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"Neither your hands, eyes or genitals are a prerequisite for your survival. Cease your spellcasting or you stay with us will be... Unpleasant."
Emma's tone is so commanding that Dhice compulsively stops dead in his tracks and hesitates before approaching Lyntel.
"You know, I recognize that pattern as well, but not as anything arcane. It looks more like a signal that my old merc company would use with mirrors...
Milo drops effortlessly from the rafters.
I don't mean to interrupt, but something tells me there's more going on than we previously thought. Anyone mind filling me in?
The Skaven have infiltrated the highest levels of Elven society, so we're going hunting. Archepex says.
But before we do that, who are you and how in the name of the stars did you get into Elven lands!