Ky La is dragged by both tentacles now, closer to the water.
Despite having a firm hold on her, the tentacle releases her and unleashes on Ky La all the more. Perhaps it recognized his status and wasn't so mindless?
"By the power of the Whirl Mother, you cannot have him!"
She rushes upon the tentacles, leaping in among their twisting and undulating frames and unleashes a slash of her starknife down upon one. The cut, if hitting, barely represents its damage at first, yet in the gracious reveal, the sting will gush blood like the heave of a greatsword. It was a mistake to free her.
The sleepers slowly walk to Freya, groans of pain escaping their lips that sound disturbingly like her sister.
But the paladin's armor, for all its encumbrance, pays off in protection. Their white, searching teeth find no purchase.
The tentacle that Nempura slices lets go, fleeing closer to the water. One still holds the inquisitor fast.
Freya puts her sword to work, hacking at the shade that stood in her way. The paladin staggered closer towards the others, making a slow advance.
She strikes true, forcing her weapon through the creature's gelatinous body.
from the relative safety behind the water pool, Iryani targets the lone sleeper. "Take that!"
Nempura slices the eastern tentacle, causing is to retreat almost entirely into the water.
Iryani and Novalie slay one of the sleepers, while
Freya cuts down the second.
Ky La, face turning purplish as his breath is restricted, struggles as his feet are dragged into the water.
Being right next to Ky La, she couldn't let him be absorbed into whatever was in the water, which in her mind could also have been a figment, or it could be some large beast. Whatever it was, she could see the tentacle wrapping about his body - squeezing the life from him. With a quick slash, once again, she attempted to splice into its flesh.
"Leave him alone, you foul blight!"
With the simplest of gashes, she finds a vein and follows it up the length of the tentacle in one wide-arching slash while it held him fast; unable to move much.
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Novalie whispers a quick prayer of speed as she moves over to the tentacle holding the inquisitor.
As she moves closer, her hands begin to frost over and she attacks the tentacle.
With the shades out of the way, Freya finally makes her way to the inquisitor's side. She swings her blade overhead, looking to sever the tentacle completely. "Be careful, whatever's in there might be coming out!"
Iryani was still walking more careful than usually. A careful observer would think she was limping. Moving closer to the preoccupied group, she draws and arrow and sharpens her eyes. "I, I watch your back!"
+1/+1 if within 30ft
Nempura, Novalie, and Freya pool their martial prowess to attack the limb that ensnares Ky La. At last, Freya cuts it loose, and the inquisitor falls roughly to the ground, rolling away from the water.
On his back, Ky La weakly raises his holy symbol. The red triangle flares, sending crimson coruscations outward in every direction. You all feel a brief warmth, your energy renewed.
Something starts to emerge from the water; Iryani shoots too soon, the arrow glancing off the water...
A sodden lump of toothed nightmares, large as a dozen elens or more, rushes out of the bog, rotten water splashing in its wake. Elenoid faces writhe in its skin - you all see half-familiar faces from the village contorted in pain and sorrow, trapped under the bulbous flesh of the thing. Moans and weeping whispers crawl from rubbery lips.
The remains of the tentacles, no longer able to grasp, lash out in blind fury.
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Wounds. Blood. Choking. None of these were common in her life. While she had been trained in some way to deal with them, she feared being near death as Ky La must be. She helps him recover, attempting to get him to at the least sit up so she can get him further away from the water's edge, but the singing song of an arrow is released. Iryani had fired on something coming out of the water, and her eyes settle on it as she hurriedly tries to get Ky La up.
At first she is studying it, bringing in the thoughts of what it must be, but then a flash of a moment later and the very same tentacles slam into her, throwing her back with bludgeoning force. With a spin, she avoids the concussive force that would have flung her into the air and back another twenty feet, but the result being that she is very hurt now.
Blood comes up. Its iron flavor fills her mouth; spewing from some internal reservoir. In a forceful breath, she recovers and spits the crimson mass onto the ground. Now it would hear her song and feel the sting of her allies and her. This time, instead of an echo resounding off the openness of the swamp to move water, manipulations of the sounds of her voice seem almost to dull the area. Water trickling seems less so. Animals far off seem all the more distant, and her voice seems like a distant dream. Through this, focus is attained among them all--a clear crispness of mind despite the fight has now come upon all her allies.
(general info)
This darkspawn is called a dream eater. A stealthy creature, it feeds on the sleep and dreams of any elens in the vicinity of its lair.
(weakness)
The faces are where it stores the energy it siphons from its victims. Attacks with piercing or slashing weapons, aimed against the faces on its flanks, will essentially cause double damage.
Without a break in her song, Nempura undulates the overtone of it. Through manipulation further, suddenly an eerie pattern can be heard that seems to mimic the sound of a voice, as if being part of the song and yet not part of it. The sound speaks to warn her allies, "This Dream Eater Darkspawn stores its energy that it siphons from its victims in the faces on its flanks. Use sharp weapons or your arrows if you can there! There it will suffer greater." A few moments later, the undulating tone flattens and the improvisation of Nempura's voice continues its normal effects to grant them focus.
Freya felt relief as Volcano's power washes over her, reinvigorating her strength after the long day. Her eyes focused and she prepared to drive back whatever emerged from the waters.
The paladin called upon the power of her god to aid her, and she felt Volcano's blessing. But the creature before the ifrit was a roiling mass of faces, each one reminding her of people she'd helped carry into the hospital just hours before. It sickened the paladin to see them twisted in such a way.
"You want me to stab it in the faces!?" Freya said as each them morphed and stretched into the visage of her sister, almost a dozen of them staring back at her. She hesitated, unwilling to stab her sibling, before closing her eyes and taking a wild swing.
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"Thank you." Iryani gratefully answers to the inquisitor after his healing. At the same time, she starts surrounding the creature, trying to hit it, where her allies can't.
Aiming for one of the faces, she looses an arrow.
Heeding Nempura's advice, Novalie brings her spear to bear,
but the creature's bulk shifts at the last moment, avoiding the blow.
Ky La, seeing the wounds of the Nempura and Novalie, attempts to channel the energy of Volcano again,
but his battered, bruised throat fails him; the words do not come.
Most of the party's attacks miss the creature, but Iryani's arrow hits dead center on a large, weeping face, spilling ichor and causing the other faces to convulse and wail.
Squinting eyes shy away from Freya's shining aura, as the tentacles try to snuff out her light.
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Tentacles slammed against her shield and pushed Freya into the swamp, but she was able to avoid significant damage.
The paladin's counter attack was hampered by her defensive efforts, the creature's flailing limbs forcing her to keep her shield raised.
Fortunately for Nempura, Ky La took the brunt of the attack for her; even if it was unintentional. Now with the tentacles reaching out, it sees Freya as the greatest threat. Nempura wonders if it has something to do with Volcano being the source of light that He is or if it is because of Freya and Ky La's dangerous qualities as individuals. Whatever the case may be, Nempura uses it. She slides to its side to flank with someone should they move to its other side.
There she drives her starknife straight at the faces there. With their moving nature, she is unsure if her stab will wield results, but she makes the attempt.
"Ky La! Steel yourself. This fight is not over yet!" she answers toward his gasping-throat-groans in an attempt to motivate his mind to push past the pain.
Seeing how great of an effect her first arrow had, Iryani draws another and aims for the next best face. With the drawing of the arrow she also draws arcane symbols in the air and magically empowers her bow.
but this time, the nervousity got the better of her.
Novalie's spear finds purchase, slicing through a row of faces.
Ky La, kneeling, breathing hard from exertion,
only summons the barest trickle of Volcanic energy. He curses.
Novalie is the only one to land a successful blow - the beast shakes with pain as more black blood pours from its side.
Reeling from her attack, the monster turns its whispering attention to Novalie.
"Novalie! she calls out as the tentacles shift toward her. The beast, however, was too fast and there she lay on the ground. Before, Nempura's blade did nothing to the beast, would now be any different?
"I cannot heal anymore. I am sapped of internal strength! I'm exhausted!" she states, mostly directed toward Freya, as she is sure she and Novalie are friends. It was very taxing to cast spells and maintain focus in combat. Her goal? To end the beast and recover Ky La, who clearly had some ability to heal but was not capable at the moment. At any moment though, she feared that the beast would turn its tentacles upon her and she too would go down. Already she bleeds from her mouth and nose from earlier. How much more could she take? She wasn't sure.
"Novi!" Freya cried, her friend dropping for the second time that day. I haven't gotten a grasp of the healing arts yet, what do I do? Doubts plaguing her mind, the ifrit tried once again to breach the creature's blubbery hide.
Her attacks faltered as the creature's horrid whispering soaked into Freya's ears. Knowing that Novalie's life might hang in the balance, the paladin stood over her friend's body, standing between the creature and it's victim. Nempura's words bear little response. "Then go, save your own skin!"
In her peripheral view, Iryani could see Novalie go down. Damnit. And nothing I can do! Except for killing this thing. She tried to aim better this time.
Nempura gracefully slices more wounds among the faces,
Iryani's arrow flies true, puncturing the beast through,
the spawn sags, still for a moment from the pain,
and Freya, though her attack is ungainly from fatigue, strikes the slowed beast, raking her sword through several weeping eyes and noses.
With a horrid, rotten smell, a flood of black fluid spills from all the accumulated wounds. A gurgle, a sigh from the ruined mouths, and the thing is dead.
Hunched, limping, Ky La moves over to the corpse. He removes the holy symbol from around his neck. He touches the red triangle dangling from his hand to the stinking body. Hot red light blazes for a moment. Acrid smoke now, somehow cleaner than the smell of the spawn. The corrupted flesh burns quickly, leaving no trace behind.
The inquisitor adjusts his glasses, but the frames still rest slightly askew on his face. "Hmm. Quite a way to spend an evening, wouldn't you say?"
Heaving in a breath, Nempura watches as the beast deflates before them. Her outfit once again is ripped and slimy where the beast tore into her and at one point had her grappled. The slam that was given to her, clearly having connected with her midriff, is going to leave a nice bruise there and already is pooling with blood for all to see.
With a sniff outward, she expels the blood pooling in her nose and pinches it off, all while spitting what was left out of her mouth. While not the most charming moment for her, it shows she is capable of being hurt and not crumbling down like some other nobles may into tears and whining.
She will surge through the water toward Novalie after Ky La dissipates the beast in her way, ignoring his commentary. Their ally was dying and it wasn't a time for jokes in her opinion.
"Is she still drawing breath?" she asks Freya, even if she hasn't been to check yet to inspire such thinking over emotion. Freya was closer to her friend at the onset of her injuries and it clearly disturbed her attacks. Perhaps she knew? Nempura looks around for anything safe she can use to help with immediate injuries.
Forgetting about her properness, she kneels down into the muck and mire to get a better look at the Undine. Clearly bleeding, Nempura knew it had to stop somehow. Could she figure out anything else that was harming her? Anything else that she could potentially do to provide first aid without harm to her ally?
Nempura's desperate ministrations--using some nearby moss, anything to soak the blood and provide pressure--are effective enough. Novalie's bleeding slows.
While Nempura works, Ky La stares into the stagnant waters, his gaze far removed.
Freya kneels by Novalie's body uncertain of what she could do. They'd been through training together before but this fetid swamp was nothing like the simulated battleground of the Church's practice yard. She remembered the lessons showed to her on healing others with one's inner flame, but such powers had been beyond her at the time. Most of the recruits were similarly incapable but the instructors insisted that the lesson would be invaluable one day.
The paladin absently mimicked her memories, closing her eyes and trying to grasp the fire of her own life. It wasn't something she could truly understand, but after the struggles against the dark, she had some idea of the feeling. Feeling foolish, Freya tried to pool that energy into her hands and then press it into Novalie.
Opening her eyes, she looked down at her fallen friend. Did she seem better? There was a little bit of color returning to her face. It worked, if barely! Excitement and hope blossomed simultaneously in the ifrit's heart and she tried again.
Ignoring her leg pain, Iryani limps towards the group. "Is she ok? Can anybody do something?"
Iryani was clearly concerned and much less stiff than usual.
"A 'valiant' try, Valiant." He clears his throat, and drinks several gulps of water from the skin at his belt. "Ah. Now, to business."
Ky La barks a few words in High Ifrit. The glow from his holy symbol is not so strong now, but it is enough to revive the warpriest.
"We are trying," she answers Iryani.
"She can heal?" Nempura thinks to herself in regard to Freya's actions, as she sees the wounds of Novalie seem to close a bit and color return.
"How did you do that? I didn't think you could...I mean...from before, you didn't. Whatever. She looks better..." Nempura comments peaceably, and on her face, she seems relieved.
It is then that Ky La seems to have recovered himself and seems to fill the area with healing energy. She can feel the blood that is threatening to return to its dripping state seem to close whatever internal wounds that the crimson flow was springing from. Now, all that remains are her bruises and injured ribs.
"Thank you, Ky La, and thank you for taking the brunt of that attack, although I'm not sure it was intended. I'm glad you're alright as well."
She then looks to see if Novalie is well enough to return to consciousness.
Seemingly uninterested in Novalie's well-being or Nempura's thanks, the inquisitor instead approaches Freya. Piercing light blue eyes search you, impersonal. "That was an interesting flare of energy you just displayed. Have you ever don that before, Valiant?"
Freya flinched at the Inquisitor's scrutinization. "I-I've been shown the technique, though this is the first time I've successfully done it." The paladin looks over her friend, glad to see her breathing normally again.
Not wanting to linger on the subject of her healing techniques, Freya changes the subject. "Was that the last of the creatures? I'm not sure Novalie will survive another battle in this condition." Thoughts of her family weighed heavily in the ifrit's mind, but she did not say it. Hopefully now they're recovering from this creature's influence and that is the end of it.
"So dismissive of your own qualities, and so concerned for others, aren't you? Commendable indeed. Walk with me, Valiant- shall shall search in grave earnest for any lingering remnants?" His face is serious, but the strange emphasis of his words gives them a sarcastic undertone.
The ifrit stands slowly, away from her fallen companion. "Er... yes, Inquisitor." Freya looks hopefully to the others surrounding Novalie before following the Church official. I hope that Novi will be okay without me, everyone else seems pretty worn out.
Taking a quick breath, she focuses her senses for the presence of Dark.
"I am not sure," she answers Freya, as she was unsure whether the Dark had infected far more of this region.
Despite her tiredness, she was healed to a small degree. Although her insides hurt, due to Freya leaving, she can help Novalie to her feet. If willing, Nempura would allow herself to be used to help support her fellow Undine.
You patrol the grounds with the inquisitor. You sense no lingering evil auras.
Glancing over to you for a moment, Ky La says, "Do you trust our watersinging companion?"
A groan of pain, quickly stifled. Novalie stirs. Her first words are, "Did we kill it?" She holds her side, possibly a broken rib.
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