Marisan enters her pummeling stance as she rushes into the building as far as she can get.
Harmony vanishes from sight as well and moves away from the cutlass wielding guards. Valeria attempts to move through the guards and into the hallway, she manage to avoid the flashing blades. However, one gets close enough to slash through her skirt.
Marisan charges through the open doorway and then down the open hall she sees leading out of the front storefront room. Donomsail follows after, staying just behind Polli.
Round 2
Bahta intones a prayer and vanishes into mist, while Valeria hears feminine chuckling in the eastern hall and the sounds of another elixir being quaffed.
Polli follows the quickly disappearing warriors, stopping to cast haste on them (which makes them disappear even quicker.)
Tessa races through the narrow hallway and finds herself at a dooway with Valeria on this side of it and a guard armed with a cutlass on the other. Polli enchants her fellow officers with a spell of enhanced speed.
Two of the guards move through the sitting room swinging their blades, but come nowhere near where Harmony stands, invisible. The one facing Valeria has better success, drawing blood from her stomach.
Marisan hesitates until there is a clear space before rolling forward and kicking the guard!
Seeing Marisan hurrying towards the door, Val shouts, ”one got away, I’ll go after her,” and rushes around the corner.
Harmony steps carefully between the guards and their swinging blades and waits next to the doorway for a clear exit.
Harmony moves between the two guards who are still flailing at the empty air. Valeria moves past the jog in the hallway and sees Zarskia, who's currently still invisible. She approaches her and stabs her with one of her blades. However, it feels like striking a stone wall and the woman laughs in her face. Marisan rolls forward and kicks at the guard, catching the unexpecting man to spit blood. Donomsail follows behind Polli, ready to administer healing when (rather than if) it will be required.
Round 3
Zarskia takes a step back and laughs as she quickly mixes and throws two vials at the slayer. Her laugh turns to a snarl as the woman manages to dodge both missiles. She doesn't entirely dodge the effects, however.
Polli rounds the corner to see Tessa and Marisan involved in beating a stupid guard bloody. "Where are Vi and Val?" the wizard shouts in worry. She can't see the poor dumb soon to be broken and stabbed man enough to fire a spell at him, and she worries about doors leading to the exposed back (since Dony is there with her) so she tries the door next to her quickly to make sure no one is waiting to stab them in the backside.
"VI!" Tessa calls out loudly, "Are you okay? Call out to me if you need me! I'm coming!" she swings and lunges with her rapier at the enemy adjacent to her, taking advantage of her new speed.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" she scream at the object that is preventing her from moving south.
Tessa stabs, stabs, and then stabs again at the guard in front of her, not noticing until pulling her blade back for the third time, that the man is now quite dead. Meanwhile, Polli does a little pre-emptive exploration, opening the door of the room behind her.
Rows of wooden shelving line this chamber. The shelves contain trays and containers of roots, cuttings, twigs, mosses, and unprocessed herbs. The fragrance of dried aromatic flora fills the room. The room is empty of obvious threats.
Having discovered no one in the south side of the meeting room, the remaining two guards turn around and begin sweeping back northwards. Slashing blindly through air. Neither of them, however, come close to attacking where Harmony is standing.
Harmony coats the two fighters in glitterdust and strolls out of the room, planting a kiss on Tessa's cheek on the way past.
"All yours darling. How are we doing all in all?"
Marisan dances into the room, kicking and rolling around the west thug.
Muttering a quick prayer of judgment against the other woman, Val step forward and attempts to grab her.
Tessa laughs loudly as Harmony plants a kiss on her among the chaos of battle "Dandy! I'm enjoying the unscheduled training session this afternoon. It must be an early birthday present!"
Polli turns from her inspection of an empty room at the sound of Harmony's voice. Her brow furrows a little at not being able to see the woman, but just a little. "One safe then. Valeria! Are you alive somewhere?!?"
"For now!" Val calls back. "I'm down the hall by a staircase, disguised as a Mwangi woman, fighting an invisible woman with skin like solid stone who's throwing bombs at me..."
Polli briefly considered asking if their archer had hit their head hard moments before speaking, but decided it wasn't the oddest thing they been through by far.
"Oh, man! Don't kill it without me, Val! I'm coming!" Tessa shouts excitedly.
Harmony appears as she blinds both guards with shimmering dust before exiting the room. Valeria attempts to prevent more bombs by grappling the woman, but Zarskia easily sidesteps the attempt. Marisan brutally pounds one of the blinded guards. Donomsail follows behind Polli.
Round 4
The achemist takes another step away from Valeria, backing up the stairway. "Run for now little mouse," she says with a laugh as she mixes up another foul concoction that bubbles and hisses. "It matters not. Your day will come." She throws the vial at the slayer and it explodes with force and flames. Another one follows, but with the slayer stumbling back from the first, she only catches the edge of the second.
With a burst of speed, dashes into the room with Val with an eager smirk on her face, ready to pounce. She jumps in front of Val and spins around looking for her target. "Where?!" she asks, searching for the danger.
"On the stairs, at the bottom," Val calls out as she gets scorched badly by the bombs.
Polli sees the berry run off to help Val, so she concentrates on those that are left. She slips past Harmony, asking "Negotiations failed then I see?" before stopping next to the door. A torrent of fire jumps from her fingers at one, then bounces off to the other.
Tessa races into the stairwell to join Valeria and Polli sends a stream of fire into the room to bath the two guards the Marisan is brawling with. One of them screams and collapses into a smoldering corpse, the other gives a cry of pain but carries even though he remains blinded by Harmony's spell.
The door behind Valeria bursts open and three more cutlass-wielding guards rush forth - two of them taking swings at the slayer and one of those drawing blood.
sh!t... we've got to start thinking these things through better... I shouldn't have to try something like this twice in one fight...
"I'm sorry, Tessa," Val coughs as the pool of her own blood on the floor grows, "I'll be back..." She twists her hips as if about to slash at the nearest guard but instead she tries to dive to the side of him, then tumble past the one behind him...
Safely past them she stumbles by Polli and Harmony calling out, "Donm, help... I need healing..."
Marisan rolls and flips as she kicks the other thug near her repeatedly.
Harmony, who is pragmatic rather than heartless, leaves Val to Domonsail and heads down the corridor to find Tessa. When she does she covers the men in glitterdust and takes up a position in front of Polli.
Tessa nods as Val retreats, "Go get patched up, Val. I've got this!" she announces boldly as she strides forward to strike at the newcomers between her and Harmony.
Harmony moves forward and covers the newcomers in sparkles as well. The guard closest to her begins rubbing his eyes frantically, but the other two shake off the blinding effect. Val tumbles back through the enemies to beseech Donomsail for some healing. Marisan pummels the single guard in the meeting room into a bloody pulp, leaving him twitching on the floor. Donomsail puts a hand to Val's largest wound and fills her with healing energy.
Round 4
Two more bombs sail down to explode right near Tessa, catching one of the guards in the periphery.
Two crackling balls of pure electricity appear from Polli's hands, weave around Harmony, and slam into the guard in front of her.
Tessa's first strike puts her blade right through the guard's heart and he tumbles to the ground as soon as she pulls her blade out. She directs her other two strikes to the guard still in the bunk room. Polli sends balls of lightning towards the blinded guard and he jerks in pain as the electricity crawls across his skin.
The blinded guard flails ineffectively in Harmony's direction, but she easily dodges the blows. Tessa parries both attacks by the guard that's still facing her, giving him a stab for each in turn and by the time she's through, he's on the floor as well.
"Thank you," Val says to Donomsail as she turns to head back into the fight, "I wouldn't complain about another one of those, if you don't mind following me."
She pulls out her bow as she moves up behind Polli. As soon as she can see the blinded guard, she looses an arrow in his direction.
Marisan dances back and forth, trying to take down the guard..
Having paid attention Harmony now coats the stairs in glitterdust as well...
Harmony coats the lower half of the stairs in sparkly particles, just catching the alchemist in the edge of her spell. The woman isn't blinded, but her location is revealed to all. Valeria sinks an arrow deep into the blind guard's chest, but he doesn't fall. Marisan desperately wants to kick the single guard into the middle of next week, but with Valeria, Polli, and Harmony between her and her target, alas, it's not to be.
And Donomsail moves up and casts another healing spell on Valeria.
Round 5
The alchemist continues her barrage of fiery bombs, one striking Tessa fully, the other landing next to her.
"Oh, there she is. Val isn't muddled in the head." Polli says as she sends her great balls of lightning at the alchemist.
And flicks magic missiles at her as well.
Val continues firing arrows at the blinded guard blocking their path.
Tessa manages to dodge most of the effects of the missed bomb and races up the stairs to face the shimmering alchemist. The woman manages to avoid the deadly blade, however. She also manages to avoid Polli's balls of lightning, though not her arcane missiles.
The blind guard remains blinded and continues to miss the woman standing right in front of him with his cutlass. Thankfully his friends are all dead and can't heap ridicule upon him.
With a few well-placed arrows, Valeria ends the lone guard's humiliation and he falls to the floor. Harmony moves into the room to survey the situation and Marisan follows behind her. With the two combatants fighting on the stairway there's not room for Marisan to join the fray. Donomsail follows and attempts to disable the woman with a spell, but she resists the effects.
The alchemist continues to back up the stairs, throwing a bomb at Tessa and one at Marisan below. Both strike their targets and the woman laughs. "Fools! I will be victorious!
Marisan moves past Tessa up the stairs to get to the alchemist. She tries to deliver a stunning blow.
"Polli, can you teleport us to the top of the stairs?" Val asks before deciding whether to rush back to where she can resume shooting...
"Come on girls, you aren't going to let one woman in sparkles put you all off are you?" Harmony asks jokingly. "I look better than that any day!"
"It is not teleporting, more opening a portal... but yes." Polli keeps her eye on the destination and reaches back to grab Val by... something... her cheeks go a bit rosy at what exactly. She manages to cast dimensional door to appear on top of the stairs without killing them at least.
"I hope there are not more guards up here..." she mutters after the fact.
"Thank you!" Val calls out as she drops her bow. She draws her shortswords again as she steps forward to flank the sparkly woman and then attempts to stab her.