Ruka hangs by the entrance to the cavern while all of the others move forward. The five others move onward until Signe recognizes something. She points out that this wide area of the cavern is where her group engaged and fought the creature that Samton called a decapus, but that creature is nowhere in sight.
Lor-Sinn continues to check for evil every feet but so far, finds nothing.
The floor is slick in here with moisture and you can hear sounds of water echoing from the north. A second, smaller passageway leads south behind them into a cavern to the south. Signe notes that her group never made it this far into the cavern and she does not know what lays ahead in that room.
Suddenly, Lor-Sinn's evil-detection picks up something for the first time. She spins around, trying to identify the location and notifying her group there is trouble. Everyone looks about the tall cavern and Samton notices something hovering near the ceiling. A swollen cephalopod with ten writhing tentacles and a hideously monstrous face with pale, milky eyes on its bulbous body flies into the room from the southern passageway.
Horror strikes Signe as she immediately recognizes the creature that slaughtered her crew and nearly killed her the last time she was in here.
Twitchy reflexes once again serving him well, Samton whirled to face the tentacled horror speeding its way towards them on leathery wings. Huh. Wings. The darn thing was flying. This, he hadn't expected. To his knowledge, decapuses could not fly, and so he had to assume - with some trepidation - that the comfortably known threat they had been ready to fight was actually a somewhat more disagreeable unknown. Some sort of species offshoot? The wizard had no way of knowing, but what he did know was that the tactic he had hoped to use - namely to conjure enough slick grease to neuter a wall-crawling decapus - was now null and void.
This led naturally enough to a fair question: what was he to do? The young man's edgy nerves afforded him this brief window of opportunity to catch the monster off-guard, even before his allies, but he simply wasn't the most offensively oriented of mages. None of his magic could harm this creature directly. Oh, vixenish vexation, and it had free reign to descend onto his friends the very next second! If only he could at least distract it for a moment, just until they got their bearings...
The decapus favors humanoid flesh over all other food; most are quite fond of gnome flesh in particular. This creature has an enormous appetite that often...
And just like that he realized distracting it could very well be within his power. Acting at the speed of thought, and crucially before his better sense could screech at him not to, Sam recited an incantation culminating in the most dramatic. Sam the human village boy was gone. Enter Sam the gnome.
"Hey, uggo!" the 3 ft. wisp of a youngling Samton had transformed into yelped at the horrid beast. "Betcha can't catch me!" The bright pink tongue that followed, tauntingly, was brief in its visit, as the thoroughly terrified gnome immediately turned and scurried away as fast as his stunted legs allowed.
One of the decapus's tentacles holds a wand out towards Samton and gives him his wish of attracting his attention. It screetches in a high pitched voice "Burn!" before firing two rays at the wizard. The first misses, but the second scorches him . After using the wand, it flies south into the lower cavern out of sight.
Hearing the noise, Ruka charges forward. "So it was a trap! Where did it go?" Murasamemaru in hand, (along with any other weapons she may have been entrusted), she quickly reaches the others and looks around for the creature.
Signe's voice echoes around the cavern as she begins to sing, with a low calming voice, helping everyone to focus.
"Not Sam, not again!" yells Lor-Sinn as the temporary gnome is burned by whatever the creature had shot at him. He had almost died two days ago, and the tiefling was not going to let that happen again.
Kajiwara took a deep breath as he held up his bow, hand going to his quiver. It was strange. Despite the danger, there was a sense of peace. Hands moving quickly, Kajiwara had three arrows in hand, loosing them in rapid succession.
Oh boy. Things were bad when being scoured by magical fire counted as a partial success, Sam had to admit. As his new gnome hide erupted into fire-red blisters, he couldn't help but cry out in pain just as his inquisitive mind cried out for an answer to what had just happened. Decapuses couldn't shoot rays of fire! Not even this one, he thought; had that been a wand he'd spied precariously held in one tentacle? Well, that was interesting. And he'd been so sure he'd scurried away from the darn creature in order to draw it out, breaking their line of sight, but now it was apparently hunkered down further in the cave. Great.
But these considerations would have to wait. "H-hey, I'll be fine, Ms Imass," the young man said, quite touched by the paladin's apparent concern. "Just see if you can shoot that dumb balloon down, yeah? Actually..."
He touched a tiny finger to the tiefling's armor, sending an empowering surge through it. Maybe this would help in exactly that. And maybe he shouldn't move too much, he considered in feeling the burnt paper his skin had transformed into crack in reaching out. Wow, burns hurt.
Asuka reaches for one of her acid flasks, only to realize once again that she has used all of them. She makes a befuddled groan, then does her best to prepare for the monster coming into range again.
Ruka moves up and joins the group as Lor-Sinn sets to work on healing Sam who in turn gives her a boost to her abilities. Signe begins to sing an inspirational song for Asuka and Kajiwara who both ready attacks should the decapus reappear.
A moment later, the creature flies back into sight around the corner to the south. Kajiwara fires his arrow, but it misses. The creature in turn fires two more blasts from its wand towards Asuka, both which scorch the tengu.
As Asuka falls, Signe has a flashback of her party members being taken down one at a time all over again.
"No!" Lor-Sinn rushes to Asuka's side, fervently praying that the tengu wasn't dead. Finding a pulse, the paladin sets to healing her. Was this a creature of Pharasma? Were they being punished for trespassing on the sacred burial grounds?
Signe continues her singing, upping the tempo slightly trying to help wake those unconscious few, whilst drawing her bow and firing an arrow at the horror.
The bard's just just narrowly misses the flying creature!
Kajiwara draws out his arrows, feeling peace come over him as he begins loosing arrows at the Decapus.
Samton the gnome had to raise a hand to shield his newly enlarged and somewhat more sensitive eyes as more bright fiery rays rained down onto the group, this time engulfing Asuka. This wasn't tenable, he thought in seeing the tengu's scorched plumage; this decapus was far more dangerous than anticipated. Chiefly so through the use of that wand, and it was with this in mind that the wizard did the only thing he could think of to neutralize said implement.
"Hey!" Ruka draws her shortbow as she moves in front of Asuka. "Leave her alone!" She's really, really tired of dealing with flying enemies, but she's going to do her best to take this one down.
Of course, being able to draw the bow without fumbling the string would help. The arrow falls harmlessly to the ground without going anywhere near its target.
Asuka saw visions of her own fiery death as she was blasted by the decapus's wand, but they quickly faded as she realized that she was still conscious enough to have visions of her own fiery death. Still, without a ranged weapon of her own, she's not looking forward to getting hit again.
The decapus moves the wand out of the way enough that Samton's grease spell doesn't make it slippery enough for it to drop.
Kajiwara lands all three shots on the flying creature, though Ruka and Signe miss theirs. The creature fires on Ruka this time, critically striking her with its first shot, but missing on the second.
The creature disappears out of sight again, flying back around the corner to the south.
With the creature out of sight and three party members heavily injured, Lor-Sinn focuses on healing. They would not repeat the mistake of two days ago; nobody was dying on their watch. At he same time, doubt settles deeper in their mind - this creature seemed overwhelmingly powerful, was it a servant of the gods? The paladin is a little fuzzy on the details of Pharasma's servants, but aren't they usually a little more... skeletal?
Signe's song becomes more and more rythmic as time goes on, echoing back from the chamber as if there were many more musicians singing in rounds.
She uses her song to help her aim, as she takes a breath, she lets the arrow loose.
Ruka moves forward but can't see the creature in the shadows of the tunnel. Not that she lets that keep her from shouting into the darkness. "I'm still here, beast! You haven't killed me yet!"
"Aw, heck."
Bad. This was bad, bad, bad. Anxiety was obvious in the expressive gnome eyes as Sam watched the flying horror evade his spell. Said worry did not diminish in seeing Ruka being barraged with the fiery missiles next. This creature really was in a whole different league to anything they had faced before, belting them with powerful magic only to then retreat in infuriatingly effective hit-and-run strikes. The only reason they were still standing was Lor-Sinn, frankly, he thought as the paladin released a burst of curative magic that momentarily lit up the dark cave. The restorative wave felt good on his fire-blistered skin... wait. Actually, his wounds weren't just lessened, but completely healed. When had that happened? The turmoil of combat had made the wizard forget the burns momentarily, but he was very impressed at the tiefling's power. He'd felt ready for a dirt nap just seconds ago!
"Thanks, Ms Imass!" he said in rushing forward, newly emboldened. Yes, this wasn't over yet! He still had - some - magic to spare, didn't he? Surely there was something to be done? And regardless of such tactical considerations hurriedly brewing in the adroit mind, there was no way he was retreating just as he saw the younger Kaijitsu rush forward. Like so many other simple creatures, Samton was a loyal beast.
Now if only the stumpy legs could carry him further, he thought, touching a hand to Kajiwara and empowering the man in charging ahead.
Asuka continues her defensive stance. "Hey, uh, do any of you have an extra weapon I could borrow? For shooting and stuff. If you tell me where it is on you I can find it."
"I have my old bow still on my back, Asuka!" Lor-Sinn offers. "Or take Zaiobe's bow, it's better!"
Kajiwara runs forward to where he can see the decapus, then takes a deep breath, focuses on the creature, then the arrow, then the creature again, draws in deep breath and exhales, firing a single arrow. I am one with the arrow. The arrow is one with the creature. When I strike with an arrow, I strike the creature.
Lor-Sinn continues to heal as Ruka, Kajiwara and Signe all move up. The two archers take aim, but only Kajiwara lands a shot on the flying fiend.
The decapus continues to fly around the ceiling of the larger cavern firing one more ray at Ruka and another at Signe, hitting them both.
Seeing that this cavern was a dead end, Kajiwara moved to where he could see the decapus and fired off another arrow, focusing on becoming one with the arrow, as the arrow traced its flight to the creature.
Ruka can't help but scream as her skin burns, the pain sending her to the ground. Somewhere in the back of her mind she hears Murasamemaru. ('Ruka! Ruka get up, you cannot-')
It's the last thing she hears before everything fades to black.
Asuka takes Lor-sinn's old bow and 10 arrows. "The old one is fine! You need the good one."
Signe's singing falters as she stumbles backwards with the hit. Straightening up, she tries to settle and continues to inspire her allies.
"R-Ruka!"
Sam yelped, forgetting his usual honorifics in seeing the young woman fall before the creature's fiery onslaught. The realization that this might very well be it was setting in; that this flying, unusually well armed (in more ways than one) octopus would be the end of them.
Boy, he hoped this next trick of his worked.
"Ruka!" Lor-Sinn echoes Sam as the tiefling rushes to save their companion with Erastil's healing touch.
"It's alright, you're fine, you're alive. Take my bow and bring that monster down, I'll try to keep all of you in the fight."
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Sam's spell is so potent that it's able to pierce right through the magical defenses the decapus has. Though it hadn't been speaking too often it suddenly gasps silently as it tries to find its voice to use its wand again.
Dropping the wand since it is no longer working, the decapus flies outside of the small chamber and stops overtop of Lor-Sinns's head. Once above her, it lashes at her with its sharp teeth.
Kajiwara sights in on the decapus, which was now attacking Lor-Sinn, and fired off a barrage of arrows.
Asuka jumps as she sees the decapus suddenly fly out and shift to melee combat. With the bow already in hand, she decides to just take the shot she has.
She then stows the bow, preparing to draw her katana next round.
"Ow! Really! Biting!" Despite the verbal outrage, Lor-Sinn is glad that the creature is taking a bite out of them rather than attacking one of the more vulnerable party members. Drawing their longsword, the tiefling stabs upwards at the decapus.
Yes! Samton's shock and horror at feeling his magic actually struggle to even affect the monster quickly turned to elation as, with a great deal of concentration, the spell suddenly took hold. Deflating like the great big rubber balloon that it was, all air left the decapus's body, rendering it unable to speak. And, crucially, unable to use the destructive wand. The wizard nearly leapt for joy. Success! This left it no options beyond... well, none beyond...
Metal plating creaked as jagged teeth latched about the paladin's armor. Right. The darn thing was still perfectly capable of eating them all if denied its magic. Dang it.
Wracking his not inconsiderable brain for how to proceed (and feeling not a little guilty for Lor-Sinn's new bite marks), Sam's was unsure what to do. Just fire some acid darts at it maybe? And this was where the thought struck him: perhaps he could fire something considerably more devastating. He looked around the cave floor. He hadn't been seeing things, had he? The dacapus had definitely dropped its wand, hadn't it? If he could just find it...
Ruka blinks her eyes open as the healing energy washes over her. She's pretty sure she's alive, because there's no way being dead should hurt this much. Not that she time to fully register how injured she still might be, because the decapus is very clearly also not yet dead. It's flying lower though now. She can't hit it through Lor-Sinn, but maybe she could roll underneath it and get to its other side?
('Do you want to die?') She has the distinct impression that if Murasamemaru could glue themselves into their sheath, they would. ('Do not go anywhere near that creature, just grab the bow and shoot it!')
Right. The bow. Lor-Sinn had been saying something about that, hadn't she? Forcing herself the rest of the way up onto her feet, Ruka grabs Lor-Sinn's bow and holds it in shaky hands.
Signe continues to sing, her song returning to a more rhythmic tune again.
Asuka and Kaji both land a hit, but the other attacks all fall short. Sam is able to successfully retrieve the wand the decapus had been using, having moved on to pursue a different avenue of attacks.
The decapus retaliates in a frenzy of attacks with its eight tentacles and following it up with an attempted bite, all directed at Lor-Sinn who is standing below it. Four tentacles its sharp teeth all squeeze, slam and slash the paladin repeatedly until she drops to the ground, battered and bloodied.
Ruka sees Lor-Sinn fall to a flurry of tentacles and teeth. She's seen death before, dealt some of it by her own hand, and in her heart she knows the paladin isn't getting back up.
Her vision blurs and her hands shake as she steps over Lor-Sinn's body. Murasamemaru is silent. Perhaps they know they can't talk her out of this, or maybe they actually agree. It doesn't matter.
If you're ever able to...please tell Ameiko I'm sorry.
"Get out of here! I'll hold it off!"
Her swing is thrown off by the sickening sensation of her burned skin splitting, but that doesn't matter either. She's under no illusions that she'll be able to kill this thing. All she has to do is keep it busy long enough for the others to escape.
Kajiwara continues raining arrows down upon the decapus, grimly trying to kill it before it kills anyone else.
Asuka draws her katana as she begins to move towards the decapus, pretending to draw much slower than she intended to as a way to throw it off-guard. "You are a worthy opponent, decapus! Prepare to face the blade of ASUKA NARUKAMI, THE THUNDER-GOD"
She rushes forward and slashes at the monster above.
Run? Ruka's suicidal decree rang through the (really rather impressive) hallowed halls of the young man's headspace, to no avail; it did not register. The horrified mind was too occupied trying to take in the utter savagery that felled the stalwart paladin. Lor-Sinn? Ever reliable Lor-Sinn was brought low by this creature? Only now did the gravity of their situation truly set in for the wizard. Even the verities of reality itself seemed optional to the tiefling on most days, but the decapus was apparently more unyielding still. This was bad.
And yet even had he heard the younger Kaijitsu's plea, Samton would have ignored it. Not due to any great bravery or the like. Heavens no. Nor was it any tactical considerations that caused him to instead yank the newly retrieved wand from the floor to point it at the flying horror. In fact, Sam himself would have been unable to voice any particular driving factor for doing so, driven by instinct as he was at the moment. Perhaps, still a child at heart that he was, it was simply deeply ingrained parental instructions now turned muscle memory that kicked in; ethic lessons from his two mentors that he could not defy. Like a child who trusted in their parents, he simply did, without thought. And Misters Parooh and Gandethus had certainly told him never to abandon friends.
He shouted some invocations, testing them, hoping that one of them would work. One did. Two great balls of fire shot out of the wand, despite the spell certainly being an Evocation of sorts, a school of magic not at all his strong suit. Now if only he could just aim.