Geedra begins to sway and recite a prayer to the gods, asking for their help with the group.
Byakko stirs and catches part of Geedras exclamation, not truly understanding the danger until the roar of challenge pierces the air. His tongue already turned he tells Enii <Bring down> pointing at the demon in the tree as he does. He gathers his feet and begins casting Boneshaker . Enni also rises , before roaring her own challenge at the demon in the tree .
Fort save DC 15 for half dmg no move
Mithas moves 10 feet to the right and lines up a shot at the demon facing down Skane:
Round 1
Mithas wastes no time in setting another arrow to string and drawing a bead on a second of the demons. The shot strikes true, the missile speeding past Skäne and burrowing into the fiend's throat. Black ichor bubbles up from the puncture as the demon hacks and sputters, acrid spittle flying from its lips.
Geedra probes into the divine forces thinly veiled across the hoofwood, beseeching - or perhaps tricking - the old gods that still watch over this place to grant their boon.
Byakko and Enii rise to join the fray, the oracle spotting the demon that had leapt into the tree. He extends his arm and focuses his divine energy, reaching through the fiend to its abyssal bones. Its skeleton begins to vibrate and warp beneath its hide, forcing out anguished screams. The whole of the skeleton shifts and a moment later the demon is falling to the ground.
Enii roars out a challenge to the now-prone demon, an aggressive roar aimed to keep the demon cowed, but its current predicament seems to have angered it past the point of being threatened in such a way.
"Never seen these brutes before!" Erdija exclaims, taking up her bow with a sudden zest, almost giddy at the idea of engaging these monsters. "New quarry!" She takes aim at the demon squaring off against Skäne, looking to add more arrows to join Mithas's. She snaps two off, landing a shot each in the demon's chest and side.
The demons launch their counterattack in a flurry of howls and shrieks. The arrow-riddled one unleashes on Skäne, barreling forward with a fist, then another, and then a bite, but the Ulfen barks a laugh as he pushes each clumsy blow away with his shield. The demon screams in rage.
The prone demon stands, shaking snow from its greasy fur before taking a deep breath and blowing a frigid cone of icy energy over Erdija, Krosh, and Enii.
The third demon, slightly staggered in its steps, breaks through the trees behind you, gunning straight for Mithas who had so grievously struck it with the blunted arrow. The charge ends in a heavy slam of the creature's massive fist, striking the elf hard.
Krosh lets out a loud call to his allies, still in his trademark monotone. "Wary of the flanks, they enclose - keep together." He moves to aid Mithas, grabbing the scout by the shoulder and, with a surprising fluidity you haven't seen from the orc, switches places with him. Krosh now stands between the demon and Mithas, shield raised defensively.
Mithas 25
Geedra 24
Byakko 22
Erdija 21
Enemies 21
Skane 15
Krosh 14
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Byakko's attention is drawn to a third demon bounding up and pasting a meaty fist on Mithas. Hoping to run interference for outsized Geedra, he wades in. Once again his jaw elongating into a tooth-full maw .
Enii dodges the icy blast and stalks into range herself.
for no Dmg
Skäne flashes a black grin as he shows the demon what an Ulfen can do - brutally stabbing repeatedly with his spear;
Round 1 Continued
Skäne meets the demon's challenge, and does the fiend one better. Changing his grip on the spear to get better leverage on the demon bearing down down on him, the Ulfen warrior punches hard twice with the weapon, driving it deep into the abdomen. Black blood and ichor sprays forth with each retrieval of the weapon, sending something akin to an oil slick across Skäne's furs and armor. Icy spittle dislodges from the demon's jowls and spatters as it reels in pain, but still keeps on its feet.
Round 2
Byakko finds some sudden synergy with Geedra and the two simultaneously slide past one another so the oracle can join Mithas in combating the ambusher. A flash of the katana sends a spray of black blood across the forest floor and that blow coupled with Mithas's original nonlethal sneak-shot sets the fiend to staggering. With a heavy thud it falls onto its back, alive but well knocked senseless.
Enii bounds to the third demon and leaps, her flurry of claws and fangs descending upon the abyssal beast. Though her claws fail to penetrate the fiendish hide, her fangs pierce and pull flesh from its shoulder.
Geedra delays to see if Mithas can finish another of the foul beasts.
Round 2
Mithas fires another arrow at the demon fighting Skane,
but fails to find his mark this time as the melee between the two warriors grows fiercer.
Erdija works in tandem with Enii, putting arrows into the demon as the tigress savages it in melee, one arrow goes wide as the cat and fiend whirl about, but the second strikes true.
Geedra will use the misfortune hex on the closest demon (DC 19 to resist) and trickily cackle to keep the hex in effect on the unlucky creature.
Round 2 Continued
Geedra smirks as she winds her fingers out in front of her, conjuring a strange rippling greyish pall around one of the demons, probing the web of fortunes and fate that surround it. Despite the savage oafishness of the demon, it surprisingly seems to gather enough mental fortitude to resist the intrusion.
The demons continue their furious assault, the one set against Skäne wading in with another trio of blows. The first heavy fist pushes past Skäne's defenses and lands a shattering blow on the Ulfen's armor that reverberates into his core, the pain of the strike evident beneath the layers of metal and furs.
The fiend embattled with Enii finds similar success to its fellow, landing one slam of its fist as it tangles with the tiger.
Skäne retaliates once more, planting a firm foot behind him as he recoils from the slam attack and pushing forward with a sudden quick thrust with much of his body weight behind it. The spear skewers the demon in the belly, and cold steam and icy mist pours from the wound as the brute hisses and sputters, its body quickly deteriorating into a frosted sludge.
Krosh casts a shower of silvery motes across the field, the little granules of celestial energy swarming your wounds and tending to them, giving a rejuvenated warmth.
Map
Mithas 25
Geedra 24
Byakko 22
Erdija 21
Enemies 21
Skane 15
Krosh 14
Byakko joins Enii in assaulting the final standing demon.
Geedra keeps her misfortune hexactive, forcing the enemy to make another save against the effect
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Byakko moves from one fallen demon to a standing one, and joins his companion in bringing the fiend down. The first swipe of the katana fails to bite through the demon's abyssal hide, but the follow-up blows more than make up for it. The silver flashes across the dark hide, carving a sanguine path down from its throat, across its chest, to the stomach. A sputtering howl swiftly becomes a wet gurgle as black-blue blood surges from the wound, raining down to the forest floor as the demon itself dematerializes into icy sludge...
Erdija wipes her brow and slowly stows her bow. "Never seen these things before...but the giants and our rivals are both known to make strange allies. Seems they'll work with any monster they find." She gives a disgusted look to the decomposing goop, but then turns her gaze to the unconscious fiend. "And what of this one?" She asks, trotting a bit closer to it but still giving it a fair breadth.
”Any of group want am question demon? Demon might not understand or might be dumb. Geedra vote kill demon before wakes up,” she says, taking a deep breath after the fight.
Byakko rests the point of his sword in the snow, kneeling to wipe it clean. He responds to Geedra, his voice coarse post violence, "I doubt we'd get a straight answer but I must admit to curiosity over their presence. Perhaps you're rubbing off on me cat. If anyone speaks Abyssal we may as well have a chuckle over the creatures lies, otherwise..." he stands, flicking the snow from his blade, holding it backhanded in preparation for a downward coup-de-grace. He arches his brow at the remaining companions.
As you take in the preceding moments, Byakko moves over to the unconscious demon and tests his blade, looking over to the others before following through.
"Best to end it" Krosh intones. "Creatures like this can simply disappear and reappear on their home plane in a blink of an eye, it wouldn't do much good to converse, I think."
Byakko's blade flashes in a downward crescent arc, cleanly cleaving the fiend's flesh. The icy black sludge sprays from the wound and the body immediately begins to decompose into similar matter, leaving a messy pile of viscous refuse amongst the pine needles.
With the threat away, you are able to get back to rest, taking a bit of extra time in the morning to make up for the interruption and Erdija leads you onwards through the forest, taking you on seemingly random zig-zagging paths that she claims will actually make the overall journey quicker.
You stop for rest at a small waterfall where a creek descends from a ridge, giving to a place to drink fresh water and take a moment to recuperate.
"Other of my kind have been here," Erdija says, pointing out some marred hoofprints around the area. "Within the past couple of days. Could be my people, other scouts, but this far, more likely to be Tsolniva bastards. Don't look to be any signs of giants, however."
After a break, you continue on, and Erdija, after squinting into the distance from atop a small ridge, informs you that you should reach the Watchers by nightfall. Sure enough, as the sun begins to descend and the evening haze just starts to permeate the sky, she looks back and gives you a grin.
"Nearly there. We just follow along this ridge and we'll see them soon enough," she explains, inclining her head towards the earthen wall to you right about fifty feet off. The top of the ridge is about forty feet above and the forest continues out of sight atop it. Thick roots can been seen breaking through the ridge wall at different points. To your left is a thicker bit of forest at your level, the trunks of the trees huddled close together and the pine branches intertwined in a knit lattice. The hoofpath you are on, however, that runs parallel with the ridge seems reasonably well traveled and the path onward looks easy enough, even as dusk starts to take hold.
After ten minutes or so, Mithas and Byakko both notice something out of the corner of their eyes..a strange, pale glow atop the ridge. It disappears, however, but flickers back a moment later, and then it floats out of sight...
Byakko quietly alerts his companions, "Something glowing above on the ridge. May be following but it's gone, for now." He keeps moving forward, unwilling to attempt to climb the ridge without a better idea of what was above.
”Hmm, Geedra am not know glowy things that vanish. Byaako maybe drinking,” the goblin laughs as she picks at her compatriot. She does pay particular attention to that spot as the group travels by it, just in case.
Erdija stops and looks back at Byakko, arching a brow. "Glow, you say?" Her face sinks slightly as her gaze rises to the ridgeline. "Careful," she advises. "Could be the ghostlights...strange monsters that lure the lost into traps and dangers. They say they can feed on your minds, or souls, or emotions, depending on who is telling the tale. Lucky for you, I'm here, and you won't get lost to begin with," she adds with a smirk. "Still, don't go chasing one for fun."
As you travel on, you notice more of the strange globules of white-blue flickering in and out of sight along the ridge. Some even appear to your left, in the thicker woods, their eerie auras glimmering through the dark spaces between the boughs and trunks. Erdija keeps you focused and on the trail, however, and for whatever hope these entities have of luring you away, they do not seem to possess any sort of ability to magically compel you to follow them. Eventually, they cease their appearance, and it seems you are clear of them, or they have given up in their attempts to draw you someplace dangerous.
That is until a fiercer glow appears on the ridgeline, this time ahead of you. This figure is much larger and has a form beyond that of a floating sphere. A humanoid figure, at that, gaunt and almost withered, with skin the pale blue-white of a frozen corpse. Its body is clad in glacial armor, pale blue semi-transparent ice that glows in the moonlight that cascades onto the ridge. The frozen gear covers its torso, arms, and head with a breastplate, greaves, gauntlets, and an imposing helm from which dark blue antlers of ice protrude. It carries a long glaive similarly constructed of solid ice, angular and faceted as if chiseled from the heart of a glacier. The creature sits astride a massive elk, itself a pale specimen of its kind, with rime infused with much of its hide and icicles hanging from its antlers. Both the elk and the riders' eyes burn with fierce blue fire. Three of the "ghostlights" that you have seen on your journey slowly rotate around the figure, flickering in a spectral wreath.
The rider lets out a shriek that sounds like the surface of an icy lake shattering all at once, and spurs its elk forward. The mount turns ninety degrees downward and breaks into a gallop straight down the sheer surface of the ice-limned ridge in defiance of gravity. The three orbiting lights break off and start a descent towards you as well.
"A most malicious fey spirit," Krosh intones. "A cold rider..strike it with fire and sound, and be wary of its magic."
Initiative
Know. Nature
Ever so quickly, Geedra tries to suss out what creature the group is facing.
"A kald riddari? Bál und hlǫm you say!"
The big warrior grins, then clashes spear upon shield.
Koma! Let us sunder you!"
... then waves the fell fey on...
Byakko conjures divine strength from the shimmering moon, enhancing himself and Enii for the battle to come. Geedra summons up recollections of this malicious fey, studying it for weaknesses and abilities. Skäne, Erdija, and Mithas take up positions to ready themselves for the attack. Krosh stands next to Skäne and holds out a hand wreathed in silver energy. He touches the Ulfen's spear and the aura transfers to it, limning the weapon in silver flames.
Round 1
The Cold Rider and its orbiting ghostlights reach the ground at your level, moving from the vertical ridge to the hardened, frost-fallen earth, 50 feet away from you. The spheres - those glowing globules of pale white-blue light - suddenly disappear, their glow extinguished.
"Stay alert!" Erdija calls out. "The ghostlights can become unseen, only to move and strike out from nowhere!"
Initiative:
Ghostlights: 26
Geedra: 23
Cold Rider: 20
Erdija: 20
Mithas: 13
Byakko: 11
Krosh: 11
Skäne: 9
Geedra pulls an alchemists fire and readies to throw it when the cold rider closes to melee range. ”Am cold rider. Use fire and noise…no use cold. Cold rider am have cold magic too!”
Round 1
Geedra alerts her allies to the weaknesses of this new enemy as she produces a flask of alchemical fire and prepares to throw it.
The rider raises its icy glaive to the sky and lets out some manner of eerie incantation that is a mix of a shrill howl and the sound of a frozen lake cracking and splintering. The air above your group suddenly darkens and an ill wind flows across the trail just before a storm of hail, ice, and freezing rain suddenly drives down from overhead, pummeling everyone with magic-infused cold and heavy chunks.
The rider then lowers its icy glaive and lines itself up for a charge.
Erdija curses and gallops out of the driving hail, snapping off an arrow at the rider as she does. The shot lands true and the projectile sticks into the fey's shoulder, but it doesn't seem all too concerned.
Mithas cloaks himself in invisibility and also makes his way out of the snowstorm, preparing a forthcoming surprise strike against the enemy.
Thankful of his magical boots, Skäne trudges o'er the slippery terrain with a surefooted determination toward the rider...
... then braces his spear against the coming charge
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Byakko follows Skäne forward but seeing the Ulfen brace for impact he hangs back, preparing to smash anything that doesn't break on his rock of a companion. He then casts Bull's Strength on himself. <Move to flank girl!> he tells Enii, who interrupts her move to the side, to flash him a look.
Round 1
Skäne and Byakko take up defensive positions, ready to meet this cruel creature head on, while Enii dashes off from the magical storm to get a different angle of attack.
Krosh trudges out of the field of hail as well and holds out his hand, a flickering spectral flame appearing in it.
Round 2
Suddenly flickering into visibility, soundless in their amorphous hovering, the three ghostlights appear, energy pulsing around them. One manifests near Byakko, one at Skäne, and one at Geedra, each releasing a sudden jolting arc of electricity. All three strike with unerring accuracy, caring not for any of your armor or other defenses. Byakko in particular feels the coursing pain of the shock behind his eyes as the creature assailing him strikes a vital point in his neck.
Upon seeing the creatures shimmer into sight, Erdija curses. "Watch out! These things are harder to hit than a wasp with an arrow! And the elders say that most magic has no effect on them!"
Map
Ghostlights: 26
Geedra: 23
Cold Rider: 20
Erdija: 20
Mithas: 13
Byakko: 11
Krosh: 11
Skäne: 9
Geedra takes a 5’ step away from the strange orb and casts Dimension Door, teleporting herself just north of her allies, knowing she couldn’t do anything to stop the strange enemies.
Round 2
Geedra quickly hops away from the strange manifestation assailing her, and then vanishes completely with a sudden pop, reappearing on the other side of Skäne and Byakko.
The cold rider breaks into a breakneck charge, its strange, eerie elk mount tearing through the snow, sharing in the crackling shriek of its rider. The sinister fey comes barreling down at Skäne, seemingly eager to take the challenge of the readied spear.
In a blue-white blur, the rider stampedes northeast, just out of Byakko's reach and right past Skäne, the arc of the glaive painting an azure line across the night. The wicked icy blade of the weapon drives hard and deep, the force of the blow amplified by the momentum of the mounted charge, and as the head of the weapon emerges from Skane's shoulder, a thick wave of blood is sent spraying into the air.
The rider continues on, wheeling beneath the branches of the nearby tree and up at an arc on the path ahead.
Erdija eyes the rider as it draws nearer to her, and snaps off two arrows at the mount it rides. As the first arrow nears the steed, the rider attempts to deflect the blow with the haft of its lance, but fails to intercept. Both arrows thud into the side of the elk and it howls out in a ghastly tone. [ooc]21 total damage to the strange elk. Rider attempted to use the Mounted Combat ride check to negate, but failed.
Mithas reappears, an arrow freeing itself from the bowstring. It cracks into the cold rider's frozen armor, sending splinters of ice spattering into the air and filling the area with a loud crack.
plus cold
plus
Enii sees Byakko reel in pain and charges to her friends aide.
Byakko recovers and makes his own attacks against the shocking assailant, his beastly growl of rage emphasized as his mouth transforms into that of a tiger's maw.
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As the rider thunders past Skäne attempts to skewer his foe;
... but the fey's scything strike lands home, causing the warrior to miss and leaving him bloodied as his wound flowers with crimson ice.
Round 2
Enii lets out a bloodcurdling roar as she bounds through the snow and dives at the strange flickering light, her enchanted fangs clamping down on something surprisingly solid. An incredibly high pitched hiss erupts from the creature, nearly straining your ears. As Enii lashes out with a flurry of paws and claws, the strange entity is able to flicker and flit around some of them, but one claw finds purchase and conjures another hissing screech.
Byakko engages the orb as well, working in tandem with his companion in a distracting dance that proves all too effective as a sudden swipe of his katana slices into the pulsating light-beast and the glow is abruptly snuffed. A semi-translucent mass of spongy material falls off of Byakko's blade into the snow beneath with a wet plop.
Krosh stays his own flame for now, opting instead to warm the bones of his compatriots. The familiar shower of silvery motes whirls around like soft snowfall on the breeze, rejuvenating your vitality.
Round 3
The remaining ghostlights seem to react to Byakko's slaying of one of their own, shifting to swarm the oracle with their electrical pulses that seem to find his form with unerring accuracy...
The warrior's spear scours the fell fae's hide and he presses home as it thunders past.
Skäne spins round and launches his spear at the creature with venom:
Geedra takes a 5’ step to the south, wanting a little more cover from the large warrior in front of her. As she does so, she casts her fortune hex on her friend, trying to bolster them to battle this cold rider.
Round 2
As the cold rider sweeps past Skäne and delivers it vicious glaive-blow, it is wholly unprepared for the sudden, ferocious thrust that the Ulfen warrior counters with, the head of the enchanted spear cracking through the icy armor. With a hideous shriek - a spectral wail more than any worldly noise - erupts from the creature as blue steam hisses from the crack in the glacial plate. A trail of deep azure blood cascades as the strange elk carries through the charge.
Round 3 Continued
Pressing his advantage, Skäne follows the foe's trajectory and hurls the fey-bane weapon, scoring a second hit as it strikes in the back, chipping armor away again and impaling the frozen fey right beneath the shoulderblade.
Geedra hops a bit out of the path of the cold rider and uses her manipulative magics to bend Skäne's fortune. A rush of optimism and confidence surges through the warrior.
The rider turns, its burning ice blue eyes fuming as it glowers at Skäne. With another ominous wail it thunders forth, bearing down on the viking with another charge, though rather than moving in an arc to sweep past, it seeks to meet him head on. As it barrels down, you notice its grievous wounds begin to slowly knit...
The glaive sweeps down to carve another trench through the ulfen, but Skäne's mastery of the shield proves the better. The bulwark slams into the cutting edge, and the resulting clamor and subsequent scrape of metal on metal fills the air.
The terrible antlers of the elk prove no match for Skäne's blockade either as they scrape against his breastplate and fail to find purchase. The cold rider screams and hisses, enraged at the overall failure to skewer the human.
Erdija continues to fire arrows at the elk, putting two more in the creature's flank, forcing it bugle out in pain.
Mithas follows Erdija's lead, eyeing the heavy damage the elk has sustained. A longbow shot sends another arrow into the flank of the beast, and it collapses, unable to withstand anymore. The cold rider goes down with it, but this creature's supernatural prowess as a mounted combatant aids it as it quickly springs off the falling mount and it lands on its feet in front of Skäne
Map
Ghostlights: 26
Geedra: 23
Cold Rider: 20
Erdija: 20
Mithas: 13
Byakko: 11
Krosh: 11
Skäne: 9
Bereft of his spear, Skäne merely sets about the steedless rider with a series of slams from his shield, as he seeks to batter the fae into a grave;
Enii uses her momentum to engage yet another light.
Byakko for his part takes on the last light, hoping to knock the shocking lights out of the fight entirely.
Skäne, no spear in hand, brings his shield up and throws his weight behind it, smashing the cold iron bulwark into the front of the cold rider; a heavy hit that further cracks its armor. A second ferocious bash sends the edge of the shield into the fey's face, a reouding crack resulting in deep, blue-black blood raining down from the wound.
Byakko and Enii go into a dervish dance, kicking up snow in a miniature cyclone around them as claws, fangs, and blades slice out into the chill air...but alas, they they seem to find nothing but air, as the strange form of the ghostlight has shivered and shuddered away from every blow in an astounding defense.
Krosh eyes the cold rider carefully and maeuvers himself into a flanking position with Skäne, his conjured flame blade hissing in the cold, moisture-laden air.
The fiery sword connects, melting through the back of the cold rider's armor and pushing down into its pale flesh. The creature writhes, clawing at itself as it screams its eerie scream. The blade continues to carve through as the creature begins to deteriorate, its strange, otherworldly armaments melting into blackened water as it falls into its final throes before falling over in a mound of wet ash.
Round 4
The ghostlights, their master destroyed before them, shiver and disappear from sight once more. They do not return with any further shocks.
Erdija breathes heavily. "You lot better do well taking care of the enemies at the Watchers. I don't want to ever see another one of those."
Krosh looks down at the fallen fey and shakes his head slowly. "A dark, twisted thing from the bowels of the spirit realms. Elvanna's call of eternal winter spreads ever onward. We have not yet come to the end of such evils, I fear."
”Geedra am hope not see evil rider or ghost lights again. Very scary,” she says as she watches the lights fade away. She casts Detect Magic on the corpse of the rider (if anything is left).
Byakko struggles to catch his breath and his attempt at humor comes with near-defeated energy, "Aye, those lights were shocking to say the least. Reaching out to us like it was nothing, yet slipping around our swings like it was naught. I'll need a moment before we press on, and a spell or four to patch me up."
Krosh moves about, tending to the wounds of those who need it.
Erdija looks warily around the area. "Best to move on before the ghostlights decide to return...they are usually persistent.[/ooc] Once you are ready, the centaur scout leads you on again, on your homestretch to the mysterious watchers.
The night grows cloudy and windy, but Erdija is insistent that you make it to the canyon by nightfall. She quickens her pace, and eventually you spot the crevasse in the distance. The thick clouds race the dark sky overhead in the heavy wind, creating a rippling cascade of moon and starlight that fades in it and out, but the floor of the crevasse lies forever in shadow, any illuminations swallowed by the massive cliffs on either side. Grey grasses and scraggly weeds poke through the drifts of ice and snow, weaving their way through the black boulders that lie at the base of the towering cliffs ahead.
Crudely carved into the face of these cliffs, several miles apart, stand three impossible sculptures that each rise over half a mile in height, looming over you with an awe-inspiring authority. Each carving depicts a naked humanoid woman holding forth an outstretched arm and warning hand. The first resembles a young maiden with flowing hair, the second depicts a pregnant matron, and the third a stooped and withered crone.
[b]"Well, here they are..." Erdija says. Her usually brazen voice is cowed in the presence of these massive sculptures. "This is the closest I've ever been. These things are right out of a ghost story. Can't believe you're going to go galloping about them, but hey, better you all than me. Unless you have any other questions, my job here is done, and I'd like to put some distance between me and whatever Tsolniva, giants, demons, or whatever else is lurking around. Not that I haven't enjoyed the company, of course." She gives a half hearted smile and after any farewells or questions, departs.
Krosh looks up at the nearest statue, the maiden. "Remember the words of the raven. The Maiden is elusive, and may only be caught with the waxing moon." His gaze then drifts up to the moon, which when espied through the shifting clouds, beams in its waxing gibbous state.