Floria sees Sangkip come staggering out of the greenish mist, gagging and coughing, clearly having a hard time taking a breath. The little vanaran clearly took the worst of it, at ground zero.
Back at the doorway, Eamon quickly follows Huni into the mist, trying to get to the remaining dretch. The small demon is a lot quicker than its bloated fleshy form would lead you to think though, as it dodges under his blade with a spiteful hiss.
But that hiss quickly turns to a wail of pain, as Huni thrusts his own cold iron blade into the demon's shoulder, cutting deeply into the foul flesh.
Suddenly it starts mouthing silent screams as its flesh starts to convulse and contort like some great evil is about to burst forth. Eamon suddenly feels a sense of impending doom at the sight.
And still the gasses show no signs of letting up.
- Round 3 ----
Party is up!
Eamon is unable to shake off the feelings of doom, and without warning, turns to flee the source of it, the dretch! Unfortunately, this has him fleeing back deeper into the building, ducking around the nearby table, and disappearing into the fog.
Unable to do anything about it at the moment, Alessio and Huni continue trying to stop the demon itself, the first doing his best to distract it, so the latter can land a telling blow... and a telling blow it is! Huni manages to track the small creature through the fog, as it seems to be dissipating a bit, and slashes into its foul flesh one more time. It lets out a pained shriek, before falling to the ground and, much like its compatriot, seems to fade into the mist that fills the air.
You realize the noxious vapors are finally starting to fade... but at the same time realize that Eamon is no longer with you, and you're not sure where he went...
A situation that is unfortunately resolved a moment later, when the entire back side of the room suddenly explodes in a massive ball of flame! Wherever he went, he appears to have set off another trap.
The massive blast sends a shock wave of air back towards the entrance, shredding the last of the cloying mists, as the cloud finally disperses both inside, and outside the safe house.
Eamon will be there, his skin red and burned, hair and eyebrows singed partly off... bits of smoke still wafting off of him.
He is still standing though, near the door leading out the back way, just in a little bit of shocked confusion... both from the sudden blast, and the last vestiges of the uncontrollable fear that is suddenly fading with the demon's demise.
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Eamon holds up his hand to Alessio and says, thanks sir but I have my own, I had forgotten I had it
Thank you Alessio, says Eamon, I am afraid my cowardice injured me and endangered all of you. Eamon cast his eyes downward. I’d ask you to give me leave to beg the shieldmaiden for forgiveness . Eamon turns away from the man sullenly and uses his wand one more time on himself and ask everyone else, If anyone else would like to partake in the Inheritors grace, I’m willing to heal you as well? Eamon utters the last statement so low that it’s almost mute... his shame at having run from battle causing him to act meek among his fellow Pathfinders.
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Hearing the sounds of victory from inside followed by an explosion, Floria addresses the crowd outside "It's all perfectly normal, we'll have this place safe for you in no time, but please do stay out here while we finish up"
She follows it up by moving inside to see what's been going on and to help make the safe house less dangerous.
"Was that explosion another trap? We need to make sure we've found them all. The demon supporters must have targeted this place to sow fear and discord amongst the most in need. It's disgusting."
She'll approach the area where Eamon looks singed and try to deduce how the trap worked and if it's now safe.
You are relieved to find Eamon still alive, if somewhat singed... though it makes you even more worried that more traps still lurk undiscovered.
Although a simple divination spell quickly determines there are no more magical traps in the area... at least ones not further warded from the divinations themselves... that does not leave out the possibility of more physical devices. You spend the next several minutes carefully searching the building, from one end to the other.
Eventually, concerned that the folks outside are in more danger than they would be inside, you declare the space safe, and quickly herd them into cover!
They are very relieved, though a number of them look at the scorched section at the back of the room nervously.
A fellow pathfinder comes through during the search, and takes the time to mend some of both Huni, and Eamon's wounds, though it still takes a few extra uses of their healing wands to finish the job, before you are ready to move on.
Having made the not-so-safe house safe again, you move back out into the city. With no more clues as to where the Venture-Captain has gone, your hope to deliver news of Thurl's apparent betrayal is put on hold, and you quickly move to rejoin the fights that rage all around. The bulk of which seems to be coming from the west, towards the Woundward district... the sun hasn't quite set yet, but it, and nightfall are approaching quickly.
You are coming up on the district gate, when you hear the sounds of hoof beats, approaching fast. It comes as somewhat of a surprise, when source of those hoof beats comes into view, and you realize the rider is none other than the man who's been eluding you all afternoon: Venture-Captain Jorsal of Lauterbury.
He looks like he's about to bolt right past you and through the gate, when he spots you, and suddenly his hauling on the reigns... his horse coming to a rather abrupt stop. He seems visibly worn from when you saw him earlier in the day, but still manages a weary smile, and a slight bow of his head. A response that makes you suspect he has not had a chance to talk to Finch since the bunker.
"You there." He calls, motioning you over even as he works on steadying a mount clearly anxious from the sudden stop. "I recognize you from the the gathering."
"We need every available man to the northwest wall, immediately!" He points back the way he came, and you realize the sounds of fighting in that direction have grown louder... or perhaps just more voices making them.
He stops himself, realizing you have no context, before adding, "This has been a long, difficult day, to be sure. We thought we'd managed to contain most of the demon forces that got inside the city. We thought perhaps we had turned the tide."
His face gets solemn as he shakes his head, glancing back behind him. "We thought wrong. This was all just an advance force." One hand waves to encompass the signs of the days' battles throughout the city. "All this, was just to pave the way, for the main demonic host!"
"Even now, it is at our doorstep, far larger then those that have come already. Larger than we ever thought possible. Thousands of the vile creatures." He stops, his face grim. "But worse, they bring siege weapons. The dreaded kakuen-taka. The swarm siege towers of the Abyss!"
"Those can't be allowed to reach the walls, or all is lost." He says dramatically. "The crusaders are sending most of their troops out to head the siege engines off, and I've been sending the bulk of our more seasoned agents with them. But I fear that won't be enough."
"The walls, and Nerosyan's own siege weapons are painfully undermanned after today's fighting." He explains, grimly. "So I'm sending all of the newer agents, or those too injured, to the ramparts. We need to help get those engines operating again. We need to give the troops on the ground every advantage we can."
Jorsel looks at Kara sharply. "What is this? Thurl? And you have proof of this?"
He clearly wants to ask more, not necessarily taking your word for it straight away, but shakes his head emphatically. "No! We've no time for this." He finally says. "If the news had come sooner, perhaps we could have done something... but now it is moot. If we don't stop those siege engines, whatever news any of us have will help no one."
"You'll have to show yourselves the way." Jorsal responds. "Just get to the wall, find a siege engine that's not shooting at the demons, and make sure it starts."
"Should be someone there who can show you how they work." He adds. "I must go round up more agents. Will be sending some to the walls. Keep an eye out for them."
Without further comment, he wheels his steed, and is off again, through the gate into the Battle District, leaving you to make your way to the Woundward wall on your own.
By the time you reach the wall, the battle outside, and on the walls appears to be in full swing. Even as you reach the ramparts, you realize that the manpower there is frightfully thin. It becomes quickly obvious why the Venture-Captain is trying to get more bodies up here.
And of course, as you look out over the walls themselves, to the field beyond, your hearts almost sink. The blighted landscape of the Worldwound, across the West Sellen River makes a terrifying backdrop to the hoards of twisted, howling demons advancing on the city. The sun is low on the horizon, making it hard to even look in that direction... probably why the demonic host waited so long to send the bulk of their forces.
The army itself defies description... demons so small you can barely make them out from atop the walls, mixed in with those so large, you wonder if they could just step over those same barriers. Above, the sky is filled with winged creatures of all sorts, some so foul, just the sight of them causes men to turn and flee.
And worst of all, are the siege towers the Venture-Captain warned you of. The Kakuen-Taka (which those of you familiar with the demonic languages know translates to something like 'The Hunger That Moves'). You were expecting towers of wood, or metal... even stone would have been easier to process. But what you see, across the field, appear to be nothing less than gigantic mounds of foul rotting flesh, easily the height of Nerosyan's walls. Even from this distance, they seem to pulse and undulate, as if there were thousands of creatures inside, just waiting to burst forth, like maggots from a dead carcass.
Between them and the wall, you see the Nerosyan forces... looking oh so small against the hoards assembled before them.
As you stand there, a soldier rushes up to you calling for your attention. He is a grizzled older man, with a blood covered bandage covering the entire right side of his head, and one arm in a sling.
"You! You there. I don't know who you are. I don't care who you are. We need bodies, and we need them fast, over on Six an Eight." He waves towards a couple of the smaller ballista further down the wall.
You pull your gaze from the hoards below to look back along the walls. You see siege engines mounted all along the ramparts, some of them almost fifteen feet, from one end to the other, each with a crew of soldiers operating them, and smaller ones, only about ten feet in length, that have single operators.
"I got just enough men to keep Seven firing out into..." He waves towards the demonic hosts below, unable to come up with a proper word to describe it. "Well... that. But the big guns don't fire quick. Without the small engines manned, the crew are sitting ducks."
"Quickly now. There's no time. We've already started firing the heavies, and the demons are starting to notice. Already some of them are focusing their attention up here." He starts ushering you down the ramparts towards the ballista in question. "Get a person on Six and Eight, the rest be prepared to repel anything that tries to get on the wall. We need to keep Seven firing if we're to have any chance at all."
He gives you a quick and dirty run-down of how to operate them, but even than, you still feel a little confused by the time you reach your newly assigned section of wall.
The huge ones are heavy ballista. They take a crew of 4 to operate, and takes 5 full rounds to load, aim, and fire. Each crew member spends a full-round action each round to do so.
The large ones are light ballista and can be operated by a single person. They take 1 round to reload, and a standard action to fire.
The heavy ballista is meant for firing beyond the ramparts, at the larger threats out on the field, and takes no special actions beyond getting it to actually fire.
The light ballista are meant for shooting at nearby threats, including those on the ramparts, and unload multiple bolts in a single shot. It require a ranged attack roll to hit a target, and does 4d6 points of damage.
All of the ballista ammunition is enchanted to overcome both cold iron and good DRs
There are currently 4 crusaders manning the huge engine, and no one on either of the large ones.
The Senior Officer seems to refer to them by number... in this case Seven being the heavy ballista, and Six and Eight the two light ballista.
You have to be adjacent to the siege weapon, to operate it in any fashion.
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Floria looks morose. After her earlier revelation and the failure with the shadow demon, she felt like all was lost. Clearing the safe house was a beacon of hope, but now it all seems so pointless.
"How can we fight that?"
Looking round at the assembled soldiers and pathfinders she can't help but be inspired by their resolve, and tries to mimic them.
"I have no skill at marksmanship, I will stand here and try to keep them off you. I have few enough reserves of psychic energy left but if this is to be our last stand I might as well spend them here. Good look to you all."
And under her breath "May Kurgess lend us strength"
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6: 5/50, 0/1
7: 5/100, 3/5
8: 5/50, 0/1
Sangkip immediately heads to the closer light ballista, while Eamon volunteers to take the further one. Both of them move to the siege weapons in question and start trying to sort out the ammunition bundles and where the firing mechanisms are. Unfortunately neither of them is loaded.
The four Crusaders on the heavy ballista glance your way thankfully as you move to help, but don't stop at their own job, all of them already in the middle of reloading the larger machine, which appears to have cranks for drawing on the pulley system that pulls back the cable, cranks for rotating the weapon, and large bolts, longer than a full grown man that need to be loaded.
At the same time, the others take up defensive positions nearby, eyes constantly drawn towards the battle raging below.
But even as you get into position, you see a pair of demons crawling up onto the wall further to the southwest. You've already seen these creatures before, back at the safe house: dretches! But these ones seem larger than the ones summoned by the trap. You immediately start to worry about what happens if they start emitting their noxious gasses here. Operating the machinery is complicated enough, without being nauseated while doing so.
Luckily, the two blubbery demons seem to be undecided on which way to go at first, giving you all time to react!
-- Round 1 ------
Party is up!
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Eamon isn't sure but he suspects the Alchemist could be better at aiming this contraption than himself. Wanting to make up for his past Cowardice, Eamon decides to sacrifice his own safety by preparing the ballista to fire before drawing a weapon or casting a spell to protect himself.
Eamon reaches down finds what he believes to be a strait ballista shaft and loads it onto the firing rail. He then works the crank wheel to pull back the heavy gauge sinew that the machine's string consisted of. After, rolling the crank back several turns Eamon pushed a beveled piece of wood into the firing lock mechanism so the lance on the rail didn't fire until someone pulled the trigger on the machine.
After he is finished loading the machine, Eamon turns to Alessio and shouts, You should fire I'll load!
As the dretches clamber onto the wall, Kara takes a quick pot shot at them with her readied crossbow... but these ones seem much quicker than the last two you encountered, and her shot deflects off its flabby flesh.
Sangkip quickly abandons the ballista, and instead leaps to the attack, before they can get any closer. As he races over the battlements, he draws one of his cold iron daggers, and sinks it deep into the nearer dretches' fleshy hide, nearly disemboweling it. It is not enough to stop it though, as its flesh starts to convulse and roil, green gasses beginning to leak from the gaping wound in its gut.
Before it can expel the noxious fumes though, Huni charges in to assist, thrusting his own cold iron blade through the thing's neck! Then kicking it backwards as he pulls it out. With a gargled howl, it falls away from the blow, and tumbles off the wall, leaving a trail of fumes as it goes.
The second one immediately leaps on Sangkip with a angry howl, its blackened teeth gnashing at his face, and claws trying to rip out his throat. But try as it might, it can't manage to land a blow on the nimble little vanaran, who ducks and dodges all of them.
Behind them, Floria quickly moves in to take over the abandoned siege engine, tossing her crossbow aside for one much larger. It has a simple winch attached to a cable with a claw-like attachment on the end, to pull back the drawstring. Once it locks, she grabs the nearest ammunition bundle, straining to lift it, not used to such physical labor. Still, she manages to heave it onto the machine, and push it into place.
Two siege weapons over, Eamon manages the same process, though with slightly better efficiency, though calls on Alessio to do the firing. The alchemist quickly moves to over to be ready to do just that, as he consumes one of his alchemical concoctions.
In between them, the crusader crew continues to ready Seven, all of them working in unison. Two of them rapidly turning cranks, to adjust the engine's aim and to pull back the string, while the other two work together to load the ammunition.
As they do so though, one of them glances to the side, and suddenly cries a panicked, "Incoming!".
But the warning comes too late, as a ball of flame comes hurtling down from above, its origin out on the battlefield somewhere, and strikes the wall right at the crenellations. The two crusaders on the cranks are incinerated instantly. The two hauling the ammunition get sent flying backwards to the ground, dropping their load as they tumble across the stone.
They get back to their feet quickly, but the damage is already done.
"We need two more!" One of them yells franticly, as they stumble back to the heavy ballista, grabbing the giant bolt as they go. "One of you take over here, the other on the drawstring winch!"
Even as that setback strikes, Eamon and Floria finish loading the light ballistas, both of them now ready to fire!
-- Round 1 ------
Party is up!