Falling flat on his back, the wind was knocked out of Amphitryon's lungs and his vision went blurry. With naught else to do, he sheltered behind his shield and hoped that the others would have a better chance against the foe. It was a sad realization, but he knew then that if he got back up he would just be knocked back down again. His role was to live long enough for the others to take care of her.
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Varocles continues trying to attack the beast...
Kyronai pauses to frantically think about what he can do to even the odds in this fight. Coming up with nothing, he scowls in frustration and fires his wand again.
Cyrene lands an arrow piercing the skin of the woman while Aikaterine continues casting spells on herself. Amphitryon decides that caution is the correct choice of action and stays down as to not be an immediate threat. Varocles swipes blindly and misses. Kyronai fires the tried and true wand which goes exactly as well as it always has. Not seeing a challenge in her immediate vicinity, she moves and effortlessly jumps over the water and brings all her weight down as she delivers an axe handle maneuver to Kyronai.
H-41, Varocle-Blinded-22 Nonlethal, Amphitryon-Blinded-Prone-10, Kyronai-11
Quite willing, on tactical grounds, to let everyone else get battered first Cyrene continues to step back and shoot.
With a curse into the silence field once more, she frustratingly watches as her target leaps away to hit Kyronai. She bolts with tiny, troll-like, invisible legs and tail right past Varocles and Amph to position herself next to the lumbering giantess.
Still under his shield, Amphitryon pushed himself away from the hulking half-orc, blinking his eyes to get the stars out of them. Bit by bit his normal vision returned. Realizing that she was no longer above him, he got back to his feet and looked around wildly to see what was going on.
Varocles continued his assault on the creature...
Cyrene lands another arrow while Aika moves into position. Amphitryon stands up and wipes the dirt out of his eyes. Varocles moves to engage and misses as his vision is still spotty at best.
H-50, Varocle-Blinded-22 Nonlethal, Amphitryon-10, Kyronai-11
Kyronai steps back out of her range and activates his flight hex.
Kyronai steps back and gives himself the the power of flight! Fed up with the pesky archer, H moves forward and launches a powerful knock out punch to Cyrene!
H-50, Varocle-Blinded-22 Nonlethal, Amphitryon-10, Kyronai-11, Cyrene-7. Round 5
With the raging half-orc attacking Cyrene, Amphitryon rushed forward with spear at the ready. With a wordless battlecry he stabbed his spear at her, hoping to even the fight as best he could via the application of spear to the gut.
Thankfully, the large behemoth of a woman doesn't move out of her grasp. Now unleashes a fury that she had not felt before! An utter whirlwind of bites, slashes of claws, and even a vicious stinging tail all take part in ripping into the vital regions of this woman.
As they do, the body of a violently small troll is seen with claws and a body of small stature, yet strong and capable.
AC: 19 (Tch 15, FF15)
CMB: +2 CMD: 15
Attack: +7/+7/+7/+7 (2bab+4dex+1size)
Damage: 1d4+4/1d3+4/1d3+4/1d3+4+Sneak attack
----------------------
Str 10, Dex 18 (+2 spell), Con 12, Int 18, Wis 8, Cha 14
Speed: 20ft
Vision: Darkvision 60ft, Low-light, Scent
Rising up and (hopefully) out of the enemy's reach, Kyronai meets her eyes. Not because he's trying to intimidate her, but because he's targeting them with his spit venom spell.
Cyrene rolls lithely with the blow and pulls back once again, her muscles swelling as she calls upon the power of the beasts of the forest to strengthen her.
Varocles keeps up his assault on the creature...
Crit Confirm...
H takes throws a punch as Kyronai flies with the latter retaliating with a gross spit of poison to her eyes blinding her for a few seconds.
Though her body does resist the toxin, her vision is blurry. Amphitryon and Smole-troll-Aikaterine take advantage of this with a spear jab and a pair of claws causing wounds on H's stomach. In response a flash of black necrotic energy lashes out at Amphitryon.
You all notice that this energy seems to return some vitality to H. Cyrene is able to score a hit though her target is lucky and twists away just enough to cause it to not be a worse wound. Varocles continues to bravely stab away without sight but his vision causes him to stumble and miss though he finds it clearing up soon after.
Though H is blinded, she does not panic as she focuses on adapting to the fight. Though you can see her veins start becoming very visible.
She then turns around and does her combat routine on the mighty Amphitryon.
She then follows it up with a powerful punch to Amphitryon's kidneys.
She then follows it up with a powerful backhand as well.
After she finishes her combo, you can see fatigue set in as she slows down just a little bit but she is still standing.
H-88, Varocles-22 Nonlethal, Amphitryon-Blinded-29, Kyronai-21, Cyrene-7. Round 6
Wounds 10 to start
10 from spell
19 from first attack
27 from second attack
-2 wounds
——-
Blinded and pummeled, Amphitryon tried to stay on his feet. The warrior took a step, raised his spear...and then sunk to his knees. The weapon vanished before he hit the ground, going down face first and landing on top of his shield.
With their, rather impressive, foe slowing Cyrene keeps doing what she does best - turning the woman into a pincushion.
...falling to one knee, Amphitryon barely managed to stay upright. Unable to see he held his shield up and stabbed blindly, hoping that against such a large target he might hit by chance.
"Did this beast of a woman even see me? Perhaps I'm so small she didn't notice?"
So many slashes, bites, and stings to vital areas and yet still she focuses on destroying Aika's companions.
"How has she not dropped yet?"
In a fit of frustration, Smole-troll-Aikaterine launches another flurry of attacks into the face and neck of the giantess. This time, she focuses on crippling her for good. Each attack is designed to pierce her flesh on such sensitive, easily bled areas. Perhaps then, she would attack Aikaterine and her mirrored images.
Once again internally lamenting how unprepared his spell selection has left him for this battle, Kyronai veers around to the other side of the cavern and fires another round off magic missiles at the hulking woman.
"I can see that you're slowing down. We would accept your surrender!" he calls out.
Cyrene lands both of her shot which staggers the woman which leads to Smole-Troll Aika landing a claw while Kyronai finishes her off with a charge from his trusty wand. "I can't surrender, too much at stake." She says through ragged breath. As she falls you can see her veins pop as her body turns into pure negative energy and explodes!
After the explosion, conveniently all that is left is her clothing and equipment as well as the cauldron of unknown liquid.
Ring of Protection+2
Amulet of Mighty Fists+2
Potion of Barkskin+3
+3 Spellstoring Lamellar Cuirass
Gauntlets of the Skilled Manuever(Dirty Trick)
Scroll of Heal
Potion of Cure Critical Wounds
Monk's Belt(As per Monk's Robe but it takes up the belt slot instead)
Aikaterine lands a deadly blow into the sternum of the mysterious H, and in doing so can feel her heartbeat. Before she can retract her claws that heartbeat begins to pulse far more rapid as her body readies to explode. There is little the mage can do, even with her increased agility. With claw stuck, she is forced to endure the necrotic effect as it washes over her, yet somehow, her body twists and turns the majority of the burn away from her.
A feminine, troll-like scream can be heard coming from Aika. She almost seems to wither slightly as her skin bursts with bloody wounds and as the body of H falls, so does she. Quickly, the small-sized troll pulls her hand free and holds it to her. Aikaterine changes back.
Now before you is a fairly wounded mage, but conscious.
"Oh gods, that hurt!" she cries in pain as she tries to mentally recover from it. She stumbles backward and lands on her hind in the massive pools of blood on the ground. There she nurses her wounds and makes sure there is no other threat in the room.
"Is everyone okay?" she asks as she looks for each of her companions.
Blinded as he was, all Amphitryon could do was hunker behind his shield. Luckily, the solid steel absorbed the blast, leaving the warrior behind it shaken, but unharmed.
Slowly his sight returned, and looking at the wreckage he said, something sheepishly "Not my finest hour." Then, looking at the elf-turned troll-turned elf he added "Remind me to never get Aika angry..."
Floating in the air as he was, Kyronai was able to somewhat roll with the negative energy explosion, preventing its full power from tearing through him. Still, the blast took its toll. Breathing heavily, he carefully hovers to the ground next to his brother and helps him to his feet.
"With one exception, you got hit instead of me. You did fine," he teases.
Looking at the pile of clothing and gear remaining on the ground, he says, "While a confrontation was probably inevitable, I wish we had given her more chance to talk. Our mission was to capture 'H' and gather any information we could. It's possible her death couldn't have been avoided, but now we don't know much of her motivations nor if there is anyone else working with her. She seemed to be responding to some other pressure."
Cyrene is knocked unconscious by the blast of energy - not being used to her targets exploding when they're hit...
Kyronai is appropriately alarmed at Cyrene's injury and only says the two things above when socially acceptable to do so.
+2 vs poisons, spells, SLAs
After making sure the enemy is dead, Varocles channels several times, as everyone is injured...
30' radius, DC12
30' radius, DC12
30' radius, DC12
Varocles heals everyone and she sighs in relief, leaning back on her hands as she takes in the waves of positive energy. What withered and tore her open, mends and she is mostly restored.
"You are a precious gem, Varocles."
"I take the blame," she responds to Kyronai, ignoring Amph for the moment as she is distraught as she sits there in her recovery. She matches her mindset to the pain that has faded instead of lingering in the torment, however, Kyronai's words cut her. "I normally would incite a foe into monologuing and telling me all, but I could see that she was intended to dictate the terms of the conversation and put us at the disadvantage. That is why I attempted to gain the upper hand by surprising her. That didn't work out well. In any case, I apologize. And for the vicious beating everyone took, I also am sorry. She was quite cruel..."
"No reason to apologize. I'm the one who threw the knife. I hit her hand, hoping she would drop the vial. It didn't work out as I planned either. So, at the very least, the kicking I took was on me." Amphitryon responded with a smile. "Now, lets see if anything survived that explosion."
"Fine. Thank you." Cyrene says calmly, her own hand wreathed in healing energy for a moment. "I can remove any remaining injuries if need be."
"It seems we are in fine shape now!"
"Callie is going to find something to be perturbed about how we've handled this."
Kyronai sighs and looks around.
"Let's give this place one more look, gather anything useful, and then let's head back to Garn and see what he can tell us."
Kyronai proceeds to do just that.
"Yes. Good idea," she answers Amphitryon. She will cast a detect magic spell and focus on the items there, attempting to identify them.
Looking to Cyrene, she shakes her head, "I will be fine. Just some rest to heal any bruises that remain will do me well."
"It seems we have an amulet that would be beneficial for a fist-fighter. This would actually do well if I do change shape but I will defer to you all to who should take it."
She will then lift up the ring and clean it with a prestidigitation spell. Each item she ends up holding will become clean from the goop of H as she casts onto it.
"This is a ring that will offer a good amount of magical protection. A bit more than those average protection rings you see in most magical shops. This potion is a potion of barkskin, and this is a spellstoring suit of armor--a very powerful item. This gauntlet is the reason she was so devastating to fight. It allows you to be better at tricky combat maneuvers. In particular, the kind she was using on you both. The robe is a garment that imparts the agility and punching ability of one of those studious monks. The fighting kind. It too should offer some protection. This is a healing scroll, very powerful, and a strong potion of healing. Who want's what?"
After healing everyone up, the party takes a look around. Other than the magical items and the cauldron that H partook from, there is little else in this room. Kyronai does notice that whatever is in the cauldron, it smells very sweet, much like honey with a similar viscosity though the color is much darker. Aika very easily identifies the magical equipment they have just acquired.
Kyronai finds one of H's leftover vials (or other container), takes a sample, and recommends that they head back to talk to Garn.
"I wouldn't mind upgrading this ring. Though Varocles mixes it up in the front enough to make it warranted for him as well. But, I don't think that Aik even has one. Therefore, I think the best way to do this is rock, paper, scissors." Amphitryon said with a smile. "Has worked for me since I was a child. We let fate decide!"
"This ring would not only protect him if in the front, but from ranged attacks as well if he is in the back. You can count me out. I will be fine."
There is perceived guilt upon her face, as if she felt like she was taking everything of worth from the goopy Miss H.
The party gathers up and distributes the equipment as seen fit and treks back through the cavern and to Gann is half-asleep leaning on the building where you last left him. He almost jolts awake as you approach. "So what have you found out?"
Aikaterine would linger a moment over the body to ensure the woman was not regenerating, then she would investigate the room they were in. Without finding much to go on, the walk back is all the more frustrating.
By the time they reveal themselves to Gann, she speaks in a more frustrated tone than earlier, "Not much of anything...Not if you can't help us."
Pulling from her memory, the elven beauty lays out what she recorded:
"It was a woman, a half-orc. She knew you and said that she couldn't stop, not for us, and not for you...so I got the feeling there was something there that was personal between you two? Does this person sound familiar?"
"It's possible she could have been this 'H' from the note I showed you earlier," Kyronai adds.
Cyrene, who is by nature more suspicious of men, waits in cover nearby - just in case Gann turns on them.
Gann's eyes widen when Aika describes the woman before his face darkens. "Hermione. There is only one half-orc woman in the village, or there was. She was as close to me as a sister. I had no idea what she was up to. She made the wine and delivered it to each home which is how I became friends with her. I just wished she had talked to me..." He sighs rather deeply.
"She saw what she was doing as very important. Perhaps she was deceived? I'd be inclined to think the better of her now that you've revealed more about her. Perhaps we can find something of note in her home? Perhaps a clue as to why she was doing this."