With no time for snide remarks, Penny realizes the seriousness of the situation. She focuses a little harder this time, and tries again to blast the creature with negative energy.
vs touch
dc 18 fort for half
Tykent stabilizes Cwm while both Penny and Eldon try to launch a magical assault on the unknown tree creature. Unfortunately both of their spells fail to have any effect and Yngvilda picks up her shield just as the tree slams the flurry of branches and claws into her. With the additional protections, only four of the six attacks make contact with her.
Moving around behind Yngvilda, Tykent offers a prayer to the spirits of nature. "Ward us, that we may drive out the unnatural." As he lays his hand on the warrior's shoulder, a thick layer of bark begins to cover her - as if she too were now a tree.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
After taking a small battering despite her shield Yngvilda has to draw deep to summon the bravery to attack. Skin like bark and with her shield held high, she steps toward the tree-beast and unleashes the full power of a shield maiden!
"For Cwm!"
"I've made a huge mistake"
"This beast is beginning to frustrate me. Third time is a charm?"
vs touch
DC 18 fort half
Eldon tries again to hit the creature with a ray of electricity.
Penny's spell finally lands, but the tree-monster is able to shrug off half of its effectiveness. Eldon's spell misses misses, as do both of Yngvilda's attacks.
Three of the six monster's attacks should hit Yngvilda, but with Tykent's assistance, Penny's spell and her special one a week armor thing, she's able shrug off all of those blows!
Eldon keeps chanting, his hand raised and pointing at the creature. Sending another bolt of electricity at the thing.
Knowing the rest of her spells are going to be ineffective against this beast, she falls back to her only other weapon. She draws her wand of gravity bow and touches it briefly upon herself.
"Open your heart," Tykent urges Yngvilda, "and trust in your training. You are enough."
Yngvilda is delighted when she manages to survive six seconds without getting hit, and whoops her excitement!
On hearing Tykent's wisdom however she nods gravelt, remembers the forms she drilled with her father, and strikes again.
Alas, the horror tree is not secretly a dragon. Unfortunately, even with Tykent's assistance, none of Yngvilda's attacks are able to hit the tentacle tree.
Luckily Eldon's spell lands, so the party does do some damage to the large foe.
It quickly retaliates, lashing out at Yngvilda six more times. She blocks and dodges most of the blows, but two of them manage to catch her.
"Do not give up hope," Tykent repeats, though his voice is a bit strained as he focuses his will on the unnatural tree.
Yngvilda takes some more hits and starts to feel shaky on her feet, only the adrenaline keeping her up. She channels it and lets out a fierce battle cry before continuing her assault with the last of her strength
"AAAAAArrrrrrgh!"
Feeling boosted, Penny draws her Masterwork light crossbow and takes aim.
"Reduced to this. Blasted crossbow, don't fail me now."
Seeing her shot fly far far off into the distance, she quickly redraws getting ready for another shot.
Yngvilda lands two powerful blows and Eldon critical blast the evil, yet it still fights on! Having suffered a fair amount of damage, you can tell it's going to take another couple of rounds before you can put it down.
Penny's spell hampers the tree's attacks and coupled with Tykent's misfortune, only one strike get through Yngvilda's defenses as she's battered relentlessly with six strikes of razor-sharp tree branch claws.
Loading his crossbow Eldon takes aim and sends a bolt at the creature.
"Do not give up hope," Tykent repeats. "Penny, push past your doubts!"
Yngvilda stumbles and almost falls, but she holds on for one more strike. She slams up at the weird beast with her shield...
Then, nearing the end of her strnength, she slams her magical axe sideways with all her might, trying to cut the great tentacle-tree thing down.
Penny nods, focused and in agreement with her team. She feels empowered from Tykent and lines up to take another shot.
She reloads again quickly getting ready to try again.
Thanks to the Ulfen's prior attack, she is able to land two of her three strikes with her magical axe! Penny and Eldon both land their shots and the group puts together a very productive final stand against the tree.
Pieces of bark shred and split as the party unloads upon it, but unfortunately it's not enough. Though splintered and nearly destroyed, the large foe still remains conscious enough to unleash another series of attacks.
Bracing for the attacks, Yngvilda holds her shield in front of her and deflects the first three strikes, but the fourth whips around from another direction and catches her off-guard.
Turning it's attention to Penny, the tree groans and slides forward as it lashes out at her with razor-sharp branches. Not nearly as equipped to take the strikes, both land and slice open wounds
Eldon pulls a bolt from his quiver, drops it into the crossbow and struggling slightly cocks the weapon. Aiming carefully at the tree creature he release the tension sending the bolt toward the thing.
Tykent shifts behind Yngvilda’s fallen form, his face grim. “Use your strongest spells now, Eldon. There may not be another opportunity to do so.”
Penny lets out an audible gasp, screaming "Foul Beast! Don't touch me!" With the flick of her wrist she disappears and re-appears on the other side of the room . From her new location she takes aim and fires another bolt from her light crossbow.
Yngvilda stabilizes
Both Eldon and Penny land their ranged attacks, though they are not nearly as ferocious as the fallen Ulfen's axe. Even though they injure it, the tree still rages on, though they know it will not take but another two more shots like their last ones to finish this creature off.
With Penny retreating, Tykent finds himself now at the forefront of the large tree's attention. In a matter of seconds, the tree rips and shreds the flesh from his body, tearing him apart as if he had walking into a row of rotating blades.
Stepping back away from the tree creature Eldon drops another bolt into his crossbow and takes aim.
...This tree will not be the end of us
Penny once again lines up for another shot, hoping to end this battle.
As the third party members hits the ground, the situation grows dire. With only Eldon and Penny still standing and both without any useful magic, the pair of magical gurus turn to the tried and true method of the crossbow.
Eldon fires first, his shot flying wide, missing.
Penny fires second and her shot is going to miss, but Tykent's lingering magic causes the tre to pivot right into the path of her bolt. The impact of the bolt tears into the bark, splintering it and piercing the creature badly.
The branches sag and the tree begins to totter with loud groaning and cracking noises as it falls towards Eldon and Penny. With a tremendous cacophony of breaking branches, the terror tree crashes into the ground.
As the pair collect their breaths, the swirling void inside of the dark window looms ominously.
Eldon carefully moves to Tykent and Yngvilda; checking them for potions. Finding one on Yngvilda's belt he looks between the two of them trying to assess who is in more danger.
Making his mind up, he pops the cork of the bottle and gently tips the contents into Tykent's mouth.
Tykent's chest begins to move up and down as the liquid trickles down his throat. Hope worriedly digs through the old man's hair with her small claws. Slowly the shaman's usual hale and hearty ruddiness comes back to his cheeks, and after a few more seconds he opens his eyes.
"Did... Did we... I suppose you two must've... Ow, my hip." With each word, Tykent's voice grows a bit stronger. "Help me up, would you? I think there's still some energy left in this stick - assuming it didn't break with the fall, hah!" Carefully he gets to his feet, leaning heavily on his walking stick.
Hobbling over to Yngvilda, then Cwm, he coaxes a bit of cheerful light from the wand and places it over each of his companions' scratched faces.
Eldon watches anxiously after administering the potion to Tykent and lets out his held breath as they start showing signs of life. He smiles broadly at Tykent's words and reaches out a hand to help them up. "Yeah, let's get out of here before more of those tree things turn up."
Cwm rolls over and pukes up way more blood than seems normal. After a few moments he looks around, "is that thing down? Did we lose anyone?"
After Tykent uses the wand on Yngvilda twice, she comes around enough to issue a battle-cry from the ground and reach to grab his arm.
She start to pull him down so she can bite and claw at him from the ground, only she passes out from the exertion before she has a chance.
When he tries again, she has no memory of the earlier incident, and rises as if from a peaceful slumber.
"Another glorious victory? Our legend grows with each-" she pauses to pull out another bloody tooth that had become dislodged. "epic battle"
Tykent does not resist as Yngvilda grabs him. The rigid branch breaks while the flexible one survives the storm - though she could certainly break me if she really wanted no matter how loose I was. Chuckling at the thought, he props her up against a wall before again pulling a bit of the wand's power.
"Glorious? Perhaps not. But history doesn't care about little details like that." He shakes his head as the warrior plays with her tooth. "Keep that up and you'll need dentures before you're grey. Here, let's put that youthful energy to walking instead. Do you by chance remember how to get to the courtyard?"
Once the party is conscious and able to walk, they leave the Dark Window behind and return to the guardhouse to meet with Azmur Kell again. The druid takes note of your collective bloody appearance and gasps, covering his mouth. "Oh dear. It does not look like things have gone well. I am surprised you are able to walk with all of that blood on the outside of your garments! Here, let me help you!"
Luckily the druid has all of his healing spells at his disposal and is able close your wounds and return you back to full strength. You fill the druid in and talk about your encounter at the Dark Window. "You know. It was a smart move not closing the window before you came back here to rest. As soon as you close that thing, Aeteperax will know you are coming for him and likely will vent his anger by attacking Belhaim. Make sure you are ready to invade the dragon's lair before you close the Dark Window."
"Now then. How about you all take a load off and relax, I'll keep watch."
Deciding it best to rest and recover here, you once again barricade the door. After a delicious meal of dried meat, you curl up by the fire and pass out.
Tykent watches the fire crackle and pop for a while as the others lay out bedrolls and blankets. So close… We came so close to losing everyone. He looks up at the firelight flickering off Hope’s golden feathers as she hangs in the sky like a kite. We can’t let it happen again. Have to protect these young ones, Have to keep them from falling again. He snorts. Have to keep yourself from falling too, old man - you’ll end up with a cracked hip if you don’t change your ways soon. Slowly he settles back against the wall, eyes mostly closed and a frown on his face.