Aisling rushes at Nox, sword ready. However, the fighter slashes back at her, cutting through armor and magical shield. Despite her retributive injury, Aisling manages to land a blow on Nox as, well, cutting her deeply. She growls, blood flowing out of the new wound - which isn't healing.
Nyxra fires an arrow after Aisling, but the devilbound woman dodges out of the way, letting it find its end in the meadow behind her.
For her part, Vantine hexes Nox again, trying to unnerve her with a magically infused glare. Thrune's enforcer shudders, stepping back for a moment, before firming her will and readying herself.
Jessibel begins singing again, joining her fellows nearby the bridge, but keeping out of the way of the warrior's glaive.
The Raven rushes forwards at the warrior woman, readying his dagger, only for her glaive to come out to meet him as well, in a blur of impossible movement. Rather than attacking him directly, however, she blocks his path, leaving him unable to complete his charge.
With that, she takes a few steps back onto the bridge, before swinging her glaive in a powerful arc at Aisling. Fortunately, the magical aura protecting her manages to deflect the force of the blow enough to allow the priestess to block the rest with her shield.
Jessibel gets a running start, trying to leap the stream and (eventually) position herself behind Nox. It's not particularly pretty, but the bard makes the leap. Upon landing, she clicks the heels of her magic boots together and tries to scoot past the devil woman to position herself at the other end of the bridge.
Vantine hurries along behind most of the others and gives Nox's fortunes a vigorous stir.
F$!+! The Raven slides to a halt, bringing up his arms to block the glaive's blade with his vambraces. There were not so many polearms in the arena, at least not in his dueling bracket. Nobody would expect a falchion, which is effectively a self defense weapon, to defeat a battlefield weapon. And these gauntlets are worse than a sword! He drops his dagger and rushes Nox.
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Asiling cries out in pain as Nox attacks her. rather than counter-aatck, she uses her holy symbol to channel energy, restroing herself and the rest of the group to health.
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Nyxra growls and fires another arrow!
Iomedae's light brightens the area, and the heroes feel their injuries subside, strength returning to their limbs.
Another arrow flies by Nox's head as she ducks out of the way of the projectile. She doesn't even seem to register the incoming attack beyond dodging it.
Vantine curses Nox again, this time bending her fortune to her will. The woman's hellbound fate, however, resists the onslaught.
Jessibel runs in a broad circle before managing a flying leap over the stream. As she approaches the warrior, however, she leaves herself open to Nox's attack. The glaive swoops around the bridge, darting over its meagre handrails, before cutting deep into the bard's flesh. Nevertheless, the teen pushes through the pain, and arrives in something of a flanking position next to Nox.
The Raven is far better able to get close to Nox, dodging through the range of her glaive... however, as he reaches to grab her, he sees that she's shifted her grip on the polearm enough that it's now very much able to strike at him. She's unlucky, however, and he manages to evade the slash with grace and ease, grabbing ahold of her.
Nox frowns briefly, before she... disappears from his grip. Nyxra notices the Thrune loyalist is somehow next to her, now, rather than trapped on the bridge, as she'd been before. Her injuries are already closing once more - Aisling's blessed weapon suppressed her healing, but only briefly.
Vantine once again calls out, this time to Nyxra, "move away from her Nyxra!"
Then she cackles and casts her last spell, dropping an explosion of silvery light right onto Nox.
"It was a good idea," the Magpie commiserates with her mentor as the Raven suddenly finds himself empty-handed.
Probably the only time in her miserable life that ugly brute's been grabbed by a man!
Jessibel tries not to bleed all over Vantine as she squeezes past her friend to pursue Nox.
Hope she's got something else in her bag of tricks...!
The teen bard passes Nox's current position, still chanting in ragged gasps, planning on coming at the devilbound fighter from the north, as well as putting someone between the brute and the exit from the complex. A small part of Jessibel considers using that exit herself, but she's grown extensively from the soft, self-centered brat she'd been when she attended the Aria Park Protest.
Aisling gives a weary sigh as their enemy uses magic to repostioin. She carefully moves to get close again, staying out the reach of the glaive.
Nyxra pulls back 10 feet from Nox, drops her bow and draws her blade.
...and begins applying her oil of align weapon to her sword!
Aisling rushes forwards as fast as her weighty armor will permit her, and Vantine urges Nyxra to step back. The ranger retreats, ditching her bow in favor of her sword and anointing it with the sacred oil.
Vantine unleashes her second burst of golden light and glittering dust. Nox screams in pain, staggering away as one hand goes to her eyes, scrubbing desperately at them to clear the blindness.
Jessibel continues her own song and moves quickly over to where the blinded warrior stands, keeping out of her reach for the moment.
Raven takes the chance to rush at Nox, dodging around his compatriots and getting as close as he can to her.
Nox steps back, her wounds closing as she goes. This leaves the Raven a perfect opportunity to attack her with his dagger once more. He stabs her in her side, leaving blood oozing out of the wound, but she manages to get away nonetheless. She stumbles her way to the doorway, her grip tight on her glaive as she uses it to keep herself upright.
Vantine, quite excited that something has worked out for her, hustles in closer while grabbing her wand. Once she's closed some distance she raises it and commands it to work.
Incredibly it does. A streak of acid flies toward Nox.
"NOX!" Nyxra roars before leaping into the fray once more. She charges headfirst at the blinded tiefling!
The Raven pursues Nox, an uncharacteristic rage coming over the normally calm duelist. Ignoring her defensive swings, he wraps his bloody gauntlets around her throat. "You're finished!"
Jessibel mentally offers a silent prayer to the gods, taps the heels of her magic boots together, and tries to scoot past Nox to cut off the brute's escape. She maintains her inspirational song by singing a few words out of the range of Nox's glaive but is quiet as she tumbles past the warrior woman and cuts off her escape.
Asilng gives another weary sigh as she realises Nox is *stilll* out of reach. She moves as far as she can and casts another spell, or rather the same spell as before - a sword appears from nowhere, strking at Nox.
Even blinded, Nox is able to avoid the attack.
Aisling summons her goddess' weapon once more, which attacks Nox, only to deflect off of her armor. Nyxra charges forwards, rage burning in her veins, but even though her blow catches Nox in the arm, cutting through her armor, her skin turns the blade away.
Vantine fires her wand over Nyxra's head, which strikes home into the warrior, searing her flesh. Nox screams a guttural note of agony, staggering from the blow, and groping blindly at the arrow, but to no avail.
Jessibel's song lapses, and she rushes past Nox, her boots granting her the agility to ensure that even if the woman is able to hear her, she's not able to attack her. The Raven dashes over to Nyxra's side, grabbing ahold of Nox. However, this lets her know where he is, and she lashes out with her glaive. The weapon carves through his guard, slicing into his flank and grating against his ribcage. Blood erupts from his wound, splattering Nyxra. The vigilante coughs up blood into his mask, his lungs desperately rejecting the fluid in an attempt to regain air. Nevertheless, his gauntlet clenches around her, and he pulls in tight, trying to keep hold of her this time.
Nox struggles to tear free of the Raven's grasp, and her infernal strength, along with his own sudden critical injury lets her tear free with little trouble.
With that, she pulls away, retreating once more, but leaving herself open to attacks from all three of the Ravens. While the Raven scores a substantial blow, his female counterparts cannot break her armored form. Nox feels her way along the wall, trailing golden glitter, and manages to get further down the hallway, Iomedae's sword trailing her.
Vantine hurries forward as far as she dares, then commands the wand to work once again. Once again a steak of acid emerges and flies toward Nox. Sadly the acid goes nowhere near Nox.
However, the original acid hit on her continue to burn.
Rude! Jessibel thinks as Nox pushes her way past. The bard's wise enough not to saying anything aloud, though, lest the devil woman hear her and chop her in half!
Stepping back to the Raven, she draws the healing wand with her buckler arm's hand and taps her mentor with it, chanting the command word quietly.
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Nyxra pursues like a shark on the hunt!
Any pretense of the learned duelist evaporates. The Raven blindly follows the blindly running demon-thing. It must be a demon, its' capabilities far surpassed a humans. The Raven was humiliated by how easily this thing was evading him. He roars something at the woman as his fist connects but, were it indeed words he was shouting, it is unintelligible beyond his mask, the blood, and his ragged breathing.
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Throwing caution to the winds, Asiling charges forward with great rage and fuiruious anger.
The spiritual weapon continues to attack as well.
Nyxra rushes forwards as Aisling holds back to let the others clear her path. The ranger's enchanted blade carves deep into Nox's shoulder, splitting her collarbone and very nearly taking it off.
Vantine steps out of the priestess' way and fires off another of her wand's charges. She is not quite so accurate this time, as it cracks (and sears) one of the nearby walls instead of the hellbound fighter. The arrow in Nox's shoulder withers and cracks, clattering to the ground before sizzling into a pile of dust.
Aisling takes the chance to charge at Nox, her own holy blade gleaming in the light of the continual flames. She slashes deep into the unholy warrior's hip, chipping the bone and slicing muscles and flesh alike. Her spiritual weapon strikes nigh-simultaneously, slashing Nox in the back and knocking her forwards.
Even as she staggers, Jessibel heals her mentor with a tap of her wand. Reinvigorated, the Raven abandons all pretenses of class or finesse in favor of raw power, smashing through her guard and armor and breaking more bones in the process.
Nox groans, her brow furrowing. The moment's lapse in concentration is enough for the three heroes surrounding her to launch their attacks, but even as she's on her last legs, her armor and infernal contract protect her... and she disappears. Iomedae's sword hovers for a moment, silent and unable to follow, before it fades slowly, the blood on its blade splattering to the ground.
A careful search around the area reveals that wherever Nox vanished to, it isn't anywhere nearby. Presumably she gave this up as a lost cause... or she's planning on coming back with reinforcements.
Nyxra lets out a frustrated shriek as Nox disappears and throws her sword aside before pacing around the room while fuming.
"...she's not coming back for a while. We'll be able to get away." She finally, sullenly admits as she picks up her bow and sword.
"Yeah, we'll have enough time to finish up here, but we should hurry about it and get out without wasting extra time Vantine says after her breathing has slowed back down enough to get it out.
"NO!" Jessibel shrieks with surprising emotion as Nox makes her escape. "We had her dead to rights!" Extreme disappointment registers on the parts of Jessibel's face visible under her Magpie cowl.
It appears that a mean, smirking, nigh-indestructible devil-woman will continue to haunt the nightmares of a certain teenaged noblewoman....
While Vantine searches the old-fashioned way, Jessi instead casts detect magic and starts scanning for the 'good stuff,' beginning in the wondrous underground nature preserve.
There's nothing especially magical in the large dining area, but there are several dozen books of varying levels of interest (and redaction).
The large garden-esque room, however, has a stack of books that radiate minor magical auras.
Among these books are the soul tomes of the Baron and Baroness Victocora, Rexus' parents.
Other than that, there is a book that the Ravens recognize as the final volume of the books from the bedroom they explored earlier. There doesn't appear to be any other treasure of value - the Lout had his spear and some stained leathers, but nothing else noteworthy, and the redactors, true to their asceticism, only had their robes and sacred symbols.
"Interesting...these are keepers," Jessi comments as she scans the mundane tomes. Her expression turns somber as she examines the books with a magical aura. "More of the stupid scrivenite's soul tomes...from members of the Sacred Order of Archivists. Ah crap--Rexus's parents' ones are here, too."
The talkative bard falls silent as she recalls that Aisling has tasked her with breaking the bad news to the orphaned nobleman. One aspect of that job had already been nagging her, so she makes her worry public.
"We ought to take the bodies of Rexus's parents with us, if it's humanly possible. He'll want to give them a proper burial."
Aisling wipes the blood off her sword, her annoyance showing. "We need to track her down, or she will find us again." She makes a note to put their teams to work locating Nox so they can have a proper showdown on their own terms. Puttin gher to sleep so she can't magic away would be a good plan. She will think about this for a while.
"We ought to take the bodies of Rexus's parents with us, if it's humanly possible. He'll want to give them a proper burial."
"I don't think so. Carrying dead bodies through the street is going to bring a lot of quesitons." She gives Jessi a nod. "It's a kind thought, I jsut don't think it will be a good idea."
"F+!!!" The Raven slams a gauntlet against the stone wall as the demon woman escapes his grasp for the fourth time. The duelist leans his back against the wall, hands on his knees. With his head down, blood begins to drip from the tip of his beaked mask. No opponent had ever bested him so thoroughly. What did that mean? What were they really facing here? He slides down the wall, sitting on the floor while the others search the room.
"I agree we can't take them with us. It's beyond too risky. Maybe we can find a place to lay them to rest down here somewhere, even if it isn't permanent. We need to finish our business quickly and get out."
Vantine hurriedly helps load up the books to take along, figuring they are probably the great prize from this place. Unlike most everyone else, who seems to feel cheated because Nox escaped, Vantine is more than satisfied with the confrontation's conclusion. They had avoided the most unlikely outcome, some or all of them being dead. She will gratefully accept it and move on.
"I think the ship has sailed on Nox, lady Eagle." The Raven says, pushing off the wall and removing his mask to breath easier. "At least for now. It is not as if we do not know where she is going to be: the opera house." The Raven walks over to a pile of books, casually picking a few up to read their titles. He was serious about his earlier suggestion about procuring a printing press to spread copies of these forbidden texts. Beyond the obviously important ones, he intends to take as many others as he can with him. As for Nox: she would get hers. Eventually. They all would, the devil-worshipers.
After packing a few of the books into the satchel, he finds Jessibel and pats the brave youth on her shoulder. I should say something meaningful, this was no small accomplishment. "You're alright, kid."
The Ravens seem to have found the majority of the banned books still in the complex. There may have been more, but if so, they likely were taken to the Cathedral of Asmodeus prior to the Ravens' attack on the Monastery.
Jessibel's expression seems haunted (at least as much of it as can be seen beneath her Magpie cowl) when the Raven acknowledges her. That look is replaced immediately by a bright smile when her mentor gives her any sort of compliment. She then quickly grows pensive again as it becomes clear the bodies of Rexus's parents must be left behind. For an instant, Jessi thinks it might be appropriate to bury the couple in the strange underground garden...but there's no time. And showing any sort of deference toward those two zombie corpses might let Nox, Thrune, and any other sharp-witted Asmodean know that they meant something to the museum invaders.
I'm sorry, Rexus. Maybe we can return at some later time once it's safe and give them a proper burial.