Slightly breathless from the unexpected attack, Alua swore silently as her spell fizzled in her mind. No time to try again. Moving back to the cliff's edge, Alua swung her morningstar at the first enemy she encountered.
Alas, winded as she was, she barely managed to graze the little goblinoid.
Lupi retreated from the front lines as quickly as she had entered, covering herself with a fan of deadly flames that burned one goblin mutant to a crisp while the other escaped that hazard with its life, even though it mewed pitifully in pain as its flesh was scorched. Not that it had long to suffer, as Erix and Alua ganged up on it, and while it survived long enough to try and get to its feet, one final slice from Erix's blade was enough to put it down for good.
Its last surviving comrade made a valiant effort to reach the ledge, and even though Erix's boot stomped on its face it did manage to drag itself up to your level.
And then it was time for the ape-like Dolgarrs to move. Bereft of more living ammunition, the hulking beasts made a mockery of the climb by merely reaching up with their unnaturally long arms to reach the ledge, then lifting themselves up almost effortlessly... although the first of the two to do so was met with twin slashes from the brawler's and the dancer's blades, drawing deep furrows on its muscular chest that bled profusely.
Yet the beast was not deterred - one huge arm, wider than Erix's thigh reached out and grapped the armored brawler by the front of his armor and hurled the human down on the chamber below, to smash on the ground before the Dolgaunt's feet, and while Erix managed to retain hold of his weapons and get on his feet quickly, there was no denying the throw had hurt. Having witnessed the attack from up close, Phin managed to step aside just before the other Dolgarr's hand reached for her head, saving herself from a bone-breaking fall but leaving Erix separated from the rest of the party.
Alas, winded as she was, she barely managed to graze the little goblinoid.
"The last wave of evil crashed upon the rocks even to the top of the well. The undertow took with it a boulder of a man, our friend. I pity any evil left at the well's bottom." Baran stooped low to make a kind of lung. He plunged his rapier at the Dolgrim's face. When the boy came out of the lunge he drew back towards his back leg to that he was a bit away from the creature.
Lupi was startled by the speed the ape-like Dolgarrs moved up the ledge and even more surprised to see how quickly Erix was thrown down "Erix...", she gasped. She wanted to help Erix and attack the Dolgaunt, but it was wisely hiding behind the cliff edge. And the apes already tried to throw Phin down too... Lupi took instinctively a step back."We need to take those apes down, before they throw us all down.", she thought. Fire had worked before, so it was fire again. She cast Burning Arc again targeting the Dolgarrs. Once again the fire leaped from her fingers and burned one Dolgarr and then leapt to another.
"Erix!" Phin exclaimed as he was thrown down. She was now faced with a wall of Dolgarr that she couldn't get passed to help him. "Play keep away from the tentacles-of-life-sucking until we can help you!"
She then used her blades to carve a hole through her Dolgarr-wall.
Alua raised her morningstar for another attack when she suddenly remembered the wand she was holding in her other hand. Holding the thought of the spell in her mind, as Baran had taught her, she aimed it point blank at the long-armed hulk and focused on activating the wand. "Light the scours away evil, aid us!"
Not bad
YES! Even better!
The blinding, beautiful, searing light burst forth from the wand, and struck the creature directly in its center of mass. She screamed, "Look out Erix, it might fall back!"
Erix hesitated. 'So, hard to kill without that Besh stuff - so I'll need to literally carve it apart with big attacks. Drains life - possibly if I touch it, so use weapons, but the shield's probably useless. Might have reach on me - half these things do - but seems lacking in range.'
Erix nodded to himself 'Yeah, give that Dolgaunt thing some space and those tentacles will be a real problem. All I can do is get close...'
Erix lashed out with his waveblade, and stepped to the side as he did so, but as he did so kept up a whirlwind of attacks. Attacks that were as inconsequential as promised.
The chamber flashed with blinding lights as Lupi’s conjured flames scorched the two Dolgarr brutes, followed by a ray of light from Alua’s wand. Yet this was far from enough to bring down the hulking creatures – indeed, the pain only enraged them and they moved deeper into your formation, swinging large clubs of petrified wood as they went. The one so hurt by Lupi’s spell sought to reach her but found its way blocked by Alua, and for this interruption she was rewarded with a strike from the club that blew away the buckler she tried to deflect the blow with and nearly bowled her over into the dolgrim that was slipping past her on her other flank, chasing the backpedaling bard step by step, swinging a sickle and a dagger in two of its four arms. On the oracle’s other flank, Phin was similarly being assaulted by the skinless beast her blade had cut, and the heavy retaliatory strike nearly launched its lighter opponent into the air as Phin failed to dodge around the surprisingly long reach of those apelike arms.
Meanwhile, down in the room below, Erix was dueling the desiccated, tentacled mastermind of the enemy forces. Hoping to limit the enemy’s mobility the brawler pressed close to his opponent, forcing the Dolgaunt to fight with its back to the wall and limiting the use of its tentacles. Yet the creature was not helpless without them, and Erix found himself deflecting surprisingly heavy strikes from such thin, feeble-looking arms, one coming perilously close to slipping past his shield. And while his own dagger did find its mark, the enemy’s flesh felt preternaturally tough, like he was trying to hack through bundled tree roots.
"These monsters are tough", Lupi thought and took another step back. She cast another spell, this time conjuring two missiles that instantly flew and hit a Dolgarr. It tried to shield itself with its long arms only to get the missiles hit into its huge wrists.
Phin did not like being in between the two Dolgrims. Phin attempted to slither around the one Dolgrim to get behind it. As she moved, she carved into its flesh opening up a wound in its side. Even though her blade cut into it, there was enough resistance as she moved that it wasn't as graceful as usual.
Baran ducked and bobbed as he was taught in fencing school but his movements were practical and had no real grace. In his head he was calling out 'Whoa, eww, ahhh!' as he tried not to break the rhythm of his words, "Sweat and blood was the well bucket's HAUL. Such a FALL landed our BRAWLing hero in the hot seat. While I stayed above and, with the aid of a barbarous beast, had myself a real close shave." The storyteller took a bold step to his right and plunged his blade into the beast's chest!
Phin attempted to slither around the one Dolgrim to get behind it.
Erix screamed - ostensibly in fury, but secretly in fright. That last attack had come way, way too close. But there was no retreat from here. Nothing to do but keep at it, and hope the others were doing better up top than he was down here.
The combatants were whirling around her like a dance - a horrible, ugly, bloody dance. The miraculous wand had done almost nothing to the horror before her, so Alua resorted again to her weapon. She swung hard, but her weapon glanced off the creature's rubbery skin without doing any damage.
Phin tried to dodge below the sweeping club of the Dolgarr to get past the enemy, to sink her blades into its back, but she didn't take into account the skinless brute's ferocity – even as its club sailed over the elven dancer’s head the creature’s other hand grabbed her by the hair, jerking her head back, knocking her off-balance…
… right in the way of the club’s backswing.
Phin fell down like a puppet with its string cut, and the thing that had, according to old lore and rumors Lupi recalled, been a hobgoblin, immediately lost interest in its fallen foe and turned to see someone else to slay, focusing its attention to the self-styled goblin whose spells had so hurt its kin.
Meanwhile, Baran’s lunge pierced the last remaining Dolgrim’s lungs and the creature fell to its knees, blood frothing from its mouth. Down in the room below, Erix’s blades flashed in the air, striking at his foe in a furious flurry of blows, but all his efforts were rewarded by mere scratches as his blades failed to properly cut the strange creature’s skin. Yet, rather than striking back, the creature raised one arm in the air, fingers spread wide. Distracted by this unexpected de-escalation, the brawler didn’t notice one of the Dolgaunt’s tentacles as it came at him from one side…
… but, rather than slashing at him like a whip, or trying to wrap itself around his throat as he had half-expected, its touch was almost gentle as it brushed against your head in passing.
’Stranger/enemy/child of man. I/we/them commend/ridicule/praise your futile/pathetic/heroic resistance. Yet you will fail/die/fall/be consumed/be transmuted.’
It wasn’t a voice in his ears, nor how he had heard telepathy, the speech of minds, explained to him. No, it was like the touch of the pink tendril had imparted alien thoughts into his mind.
’Yield/submit/make peace, and you/yours may still live/exist/remain to see the sun/bright/burning/accursed.’
Up on the ledge, both of the Dolgarrs flinched back as if beasts too used to the touch of a lash who head the telltale crack in the air and turned to look back at their silent leader below.
Lupi did not have a good vision on Erix and the Dolgaunt, but a sudden pause on sounds of battle worried her. She again took a step back. "Wait... what... don't stop fighting! They will just turn us into mutants like they did to others ages ago!!", she shouted. She was running out of spells and at least for a short while, she had some time to change into a more comfortable spell.
Phin cried out as her hair was yanked. It was such a dirty move but she had no time to be indignant before she was overwhelmed with pain and everything went black.
Alua caught Phin's collapse from the corner of her eye. "Oh no!" Not realizing that the aberrations had stopped attacking, she dropped to Phin's side, calling upon the spirits to aid in her healing her friend.
Baran, confused by the break in the fight, stopped his oration on the story of the well, "There's a break in the battle - quick! Flanking positions!" He rushed to get into position.
As Phin roused, Alua glanced up, one hand on her morningstar, prepared to leap to her feet and defend Phin as she regained consciousness. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger, so she risked a second wave of healing on the elf.
Seeing that the enemy had stopped moving, stopped attacking, she cried out, "Erix? Are you okay? What's happening?"
Erix did his best to project thought, as well as voice - and despite his revulsion, not to cast the tendril aside.
"I'm ready to retreat." he agreed with... whatever it was. "You're not our target, and you're good fighters. Hold."
He turned to the others "It's... It's offering quarter. I think... it's not easy to understand."
Erix will hold while the thing is not attacking him, and make a good faith effort to negotiate a truce.
I suspect it'll all go to custard, and the best we'll get is Erix and the Dolgaunt have each lost an action.
'Quarter/cessation/opportunity, yes,' another burst of barely-understood thoughts arrived with a brush of a tentacle against Erix's temple. 'For your lives/continuation/individuality, the tiniest of boons/services/exchanges/betrayals. After, you leave/flee/triumphantly return to your world to live/fear/await the inevitable. Are we in agreement/unity/contract?'
Phin groaned as she regained consciousness. She was going to feel this in the morning. Part of her thought she was getting too old for this.
She smiled weakly up at Alua as she tried to sit up. Her ribs were still tender but considering she had been thrown around like a rag doll minutes earlier, she couldn't complain. "Thanks, Alua."
Then the silence registered with Phin. There were no sounds of fighting but there was also no sounds of any kind. She looked at the others questioningly and whispered, "What's going on?"
But then Erix's voice floated up from below which added to the elf's confusion, "What does that mean exactly, Cub?" This time when she used the term Cub, there was no joking attached to it, only familial concern. "We stop fighting and go our separate ways?"
Instantly suspicious, Alua frowned. "What's the catch? We let them out to go rampage through the camp? No deal."
Lupi was not at all happy with the turn of events. The only positive detail was that Phin was up again and the enemies were as wounded as before. Erix's unwillingness to kill the Dolgaunt was very worrying. "He might be mind controlled again, like in the previous battle." Lupi took another step back and got ready to attack.
"It wants us to do something." Erix hesitates, and turns to the creature "How exactly do you see this going?"
Baran held his breath and his hand but was ready to attack at the slightest flinch towards violence. He listened to Erix voice carefully for any lilt or unusual phrase.
'An exchange/trade/theft,' the creature's thoughts tumbled through Erix's mind. 'A door/barrier/obstacle stands in our path/confronts us/confounds us. Warded by the accursed sentinels/followers of the blue. Long have we struggled/warred/failed against it. Yet, here/now/in you, an opportunity/redemption/victory. You broke a seal/barrier/sigil. You can/will/must do so again. After, your lives/days will be yours once more.'
After Erix reiteration, "Cerulean Sign? The Followers of the Blue? I remember a little ... something about their opposition to the Daelkyr. The so called 'Lords of Madness'." The bard didn't relinquish his hold on his rapier.
Lupi was enraged.
Lupi cast her spell at Dolgarr's. The flames hit the first one and bounced onto the other one.
Alua had been preparing for another attack, and was ready to swing when Lupi blasted her spell. She swung her morningstar hard, delivering a solid hit to the strange fleshy center of the aberration, wishing she could hit as hard as Erix could.
Erix's eyes widened at Lupi's words, and he started to turn - but too late, for the tendril near his head was already in motion...
As Lupi's flames seared the flesh of the abominations, but it took a strike from Alua's mace to finally drop the wounded beast. It's companion reacted with according to everyone's expectations, roaring with renewed fury and glee as it was allowed once more to do what is craved most of all - slay, tear, rend. It hopped over to Phin, catching the rogue unprepared, blowing though her desperate parry and pushed, sending the lightly built elf flying backwards head over heels, over the cliff's edge and down, to land in a heap aching limbs, pushed against the wall of the tunnel the mutants had used to enter the chamber.
Still unsatisfied with one victory, the apish brute stepped over to Alua, and only with desperate effort did she manage to deflect the heavy smash of the creature's club as it sought to burst her head wide open, like an overripe melon.
Down below, Phin's happless flight almost distracted Erix enough for a tentacle to sneak past his defense, but the brawler recovered in time to dodge under the whip-like strike.
Baran stepped forward into a deep lunge and his sword flexed unable to penetrate its' thick skin. "It seemed as though the skin was made of six inches of leather but it would not help the beast today! The blade worked its' way in several inches!