Round 1
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 24/24
Sable 26/26
Senna 0/18 - staggered
Xing 8/20
Yash 22/22
Xing's own stagger instinctively becomes a shifting step, bringing her into a flanking position with the wounded Senna. She slides into an aggressive stance, throwing a claw, knee combo intended to stun the one now between them.
"Senna! Can you get clear?!"
Xing hammers the skulking creature twice, leaving it bloody and battered… but it doesn’t drop.
All four of the gangly creatures strike. Sabelina narrowly avoids another eviscerating strike. The one that struck Xing initially pursues, but cannot flank her. His blow is easily batted aside. Senna tries to respond to Xing's question but only blood pours from her mouth as the gangrel man drives the blade into her a second time. His blow is weak, due to the beating he took from the monk. Nevertheless, it is enough. Senna drops into the muck of the sewer, well on her way to death.
The final creature penetrates Yash's defenses with a low slash that carves a deep trench in his thigh, shaving an artery.
Round 1
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 24/24
Sable 26/26
Senna -9/18 - dying
Xing 8/20
Yash 4/22
Mama mutters what must be a halfling curse and drops to Senna's aid, wand in hand! She quickly weaves the spell, heedless of the danger to herself.
Sabelina reacts to the sudden threat to her left, turning while getting her buckler up and striking with her blade.
"More of the bastards! I'm out of good will toward these skulkers by now."
With Senna down and Mama attending to her, Yash could feel his rage rising, threatening to overflow and spill out of him in a storm of fury. For a brief moment, he even considered trying to restrain it, but as the pain nagged at him, he howled and unleashed it.
The rapier and axe of Sable and Yash carve into the guts of their opponents. Cookie’s valiant deed nearly becomes her epitaph as one of the gangly creatures nearly drives a dagger through the vulnerable old woman’s neck. Despite the blow, Cookie heals the downed archer.
Round 2
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 3/24
Sable 26/26
Senna -3/18 - stable
Xing 8/20
Yash 4/22 (8/26) - raging
"Avoid letting them flank you when possible!" Xing roars out as she continues her circling attacks, this time stepping to flank with Mama Cookie as she continues her onslaught of her previous target.
With two swift punches, Xing breaks the neck of the first skulker. The other three attack their principal targets. Having lost the element of surprise, only the skulker on Sable is able to deliver a slash to his opponent. Sable takes a cut across her forearm blocking the blow. Xing's timing is perfect as she narrowly sidesteps an attempt to gut her. And Yash's opponent seems rattled by the raging half-orc's warcry.
Round 2
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 3/24
Sable 22/26
Senna -3/18 - stable
Xing 8/20
Yash 4/22 (8/26) - raging
Yash snarled, tightened his grip, and swung his axe down at the skulking man in front of him.
The pain of the slice on her arm elicits a hiss from Sabelina. She wastes no time before responding.
Sabelina's enemy dodges her rapier but Yash's opponent isn't so lucky. The half-orc's axe cleaves through the man's shoulder and deep into his rib cage. The skulker collapses like a felled tree. He awaits Pharasma's judgement.
Cookie whimpers, but cuts it short with gritted teeth. I believe... You are DEAD!
Her hand reaches behind her as the longspear clatters to the ground. She draws fourth a cast iron cooking skillet and swings it at her attacker!
Cookie whips the skillet in a backhand strike. The cast-iron ‘weapon’ whispers past the skulking creature’s kneecap.
Round 3
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 3/24
Sable 22/26
Senna -3/18 - stable
Xing 8/20
Yash 4/22 (8/26) - raging
As the scales tip — and Xing finds herself isolated with only one opponent — she switches tactics, lunging forward to grab the gray thing.
"It didn't have to be this way, creature," she growls as she grabs him close, getting inside his reach, "We don't even know why you attack us."
One of the greys weaves through Sabelina’s defenses and drags his blade across her belly. Seeing the change in his crew’s fortunes, he begins yelling phrases in a strange dark, hissing tongue none of you understand. His voice echoes loudly in the cavernous hall.
The other grey tries to break Xing’s hold, but fails. The two remain locked in combat.
Round 3
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 3/24
Sable 17/26
Senna -3/18 - stable
Xing 8/20 - grappling
Yash 4/22 (8/26) - raging
Sabelina's irritation with the day is cresting by now. She's had enough, almost enough to go back to their employer and skewer him for the false impression of the job he had presented to them.
She also begins to mind her defenses better.
Sable vents some of her irritation on the grey, stabbing into his thigh.
His foe dispatched, Yash turned his attention to the next closest sewer dweller .
Cookie keeps the skillet well in hand and strikes at her assailant's shins again!
But she only succeeds in keeping it on its toes.
As the creature struggles futilely in her grip, Xing looks the direction they called into the darkness of the tunnels beyond. ”We need to finish this fight quickly,” she grunts as she pivots, attempting to wrench the creature’s arm into a submission position. ”I think they may have just called for help. When that one is dead, someone come kill this one.”
Cookie's skillet smashes a toe distracting the grey enough for Yash's axe to land a staggering blow. The grey wobbles on his feet.
Sabelina takes advantage of the skulker's suddenly lax defense to neatly decapitate him.
The wobbly skulker lunges at Sable in desperation. Her parrying rapier skitters off the blood-slicked dagger instead of deflecting it. Whether through skill, dumb luck, or fate, the grey hilts the dagger in the swordswoman’s chest. She backhands him away with the basket hilt of her rapier then razors his head from his shoulders with the full length of the honed edge.
Xing manages to pin her opponent briefly only to feel his sweaty body slither from her grasp like an eel. He bolts down the hallway.
Round 4
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 3/24
Sable 7/26
Senna -3/18 - stable
Xing 8/20
Yash 4/22 (8/26) - raging
Sabelina prepares for the delicate act of removing the dagger in her chest and healing herself immediately afterward to prevent excess blood loss.
Just before taking hold of the handle and pulling it free, she looks down to consider the headless body, deciding to give her erstwhile opponent her opinion of the outcome.
"You could never have bested me b~#*+. Tomorrow I will not even remember you."
Xing's kick narrowly misses the fleeing grey.
With their foes fallen and fleeing, Yash let the rage fade from his body as he approached Senna. One hand fell away from his greataxe as he reached down and touched the unconscious woman.
"Grandfather, I need your energy" he said as healing energy flowed from his hand and into Senna.
"Duchy jeszcze cię nie zabrały."
"The spirits have not taken you yet."
Senna comes to with a start and bolts upright, rubbing at the wound in her chest in memory. ”Masz moje podziękowania.”
She regards the filth soaking her. ”If this was the afterlife, I’d be disappointed.” She gets up shakily, wringing the filth from her hair.
Round 4
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 3/24
Sable 7/26
Senna 3/18
Xing 8/20
Yash 4/22
Mama grunts through the pain of her wound. That was close. I really hope I don't see those things again.
She twirls the wand in her fingers and taps Senna again.
Cookie doesn’t waste time in getting the most out of the wand.
Round 5
ORDER
Xing, Baddies, Senna, Sabelina, Cookie, Yash
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 3/24
Sable 12/26 (total after RND 5 actions)
Senna 11/18
Xing 8/20
Yash 4/22
When Senna regains her feet, Xing eyes the direction the gray thing fled, then the way back behind the group.
"We were not hired to kill things in these sewers." She shrugs, a defiant look in her eyes. "I do not intend to die because the man who hired us didn't tell us of threats down here. I say we run now. We can always heal up and return if that was actually his intent."
"I'm with you Xing. We need to have a good long talk with Uller about his job descriptions. I'm neither stupid nor desperate enough to continue taking jobs from a man who doesn't tell me what actually involved in doing them. Let's go."
"We go" Yash said. He scooped up Mama Cookie with his free hand and slung his axe. He grabbed a bone dagger from his bandolier as he headed towards the exit.
"Need heals."
Mama pokes Yash with the wand as he scoops her up, stubbornly ignoring her own wounds until the others are well.
Thank you, Yash. Those things are deadly. Let's not see who they went to get.
Senna scoops up the gear of the three dead skulkers and quickly follows the rest of the team to the exit. Our heroes collect the unconscious skulkers and carry them out as well. It takes a few minutes to navigate out of the sewer safely while carrying the prisoners and keeping a wary eye for more nearly invisible attackers.
As you exit the sewer via the squeaky gate and catch your first breath of fresh air, you see Uller looking worried - particularly when he sees your prisoners. He’s about to speak when his and your attention is drawn to the nearby stairs. A small figure leaps down three steps at a time, muttering blackly under her breath. You clear the mouth of the sewer as Odelai, the gnome granny, goes toe-to-toe with Uller. She regards your party briefly – noting your prisoners, your wounds, and your general condition. ”I’m glad you are all alive.” She turns her attention to Uller, speaking in a tone that carries far more menace than you’d imagine her body could hold. ”Explain this.”
"We're glad to all be alive as well" Sabelina says while staring daggers at Uller.
"Funny how any other outcome for a 'cleaning' job wasn't something we'd imagined, probably because it wasn't mentioned at all. Curious that, and worthy of a conversation now I think."
Sabelina tends to cross her arms when displeased, but in this case she keeps her arms loose and to sides just in case a weapon is suddenly called for.
Xing watches the exchange between the old woman and Uller for a moment, clearly intent to hear his explanation. As she steps closer to Mama Cookie, however, her golden eyes are drawn back towards the sewer's entrance.
"We should continue using the wand as they talk," she says quietly to Mama Cookie, "Those things could still follow us out here, and we should be prepared."
Mama nods and continues tapping everyone, but, curiously, not herself. As the conversation really gets tense, she steps forward, leaning on her spear for support, wounds in full view through torn, blood soaked clothing. Not all the blood is hers, of course, but no one outside the group knows that and the effect is like looking at a grandmotherly ghost from the exaggerated fairy tales because no body that small should be covered in that much red.
Now Uller. I recognize that I'm new here and not worth your trust. That is all well and good, especially for such a close knit cosmos-traveling community, some might say family, as you have here. A drop of half-congealed blood audibly smacks into the floor from her deep red sleeve. She fixes him with the kind of accusatory glare that children get when Mama knows they know they've done something crooked. But this? To me? A woman of my age? She lets the accusation hang in the air.
Lady, who has magically escaped the adventure unscathed, stays near Yash and quietly translates when the big guy looks like he might not have caught something. She seems to be wholly pleased with how this confrontation is going so far.
Odelai spares another glance at the injured team and casts a quick spell. "Save your wand." All your wounds heal fully.
At Xing's mention of a continuing threat, the old lady puts herself between the team and gate. Her hair lengthens, slaps the gate shut, then binds the gate closed. "Don't be concerned, child, I've got this."
Her large eyes fall on their employer. "Speak up, Uller."
CURRENT HP:
Cookie 24/24
Sable 26/26
Senna 18/18
Xing 20/20
Yash 22/22
Uller looks quite nervous and his tone towards Odelai is deferential. ”Well, ma’am, we periodically got to clean the sewers, as you know. I enlisted these folks to do that for a fee and geared them up. I did NOT know there was anything more dangerous that cockroaches or carrion eaters lurking in there. That’s what we’ve seen before. Gods’ honest truth. The gate was locked like it always is. I heard a scuffle early on and poked my head in. They had already polished off a bunch of roaches, so I didn’t think anything was amiss. I didn’t think there was a problem til one of these tall skinny bastards lit straight out of the sewer and nearly bowled me over. That’s when I called for the Guard.”
Three more townsfolks - dressed in normal clothing not uniforms of any sort - clamber down the steps, stop, and give Odelai a nod. She indicates the skulkers. ”Take them.”
Odelai seems dissatisfied with Uller’s response but turns to the party, her tone softening. ”What happened in there? What can you tell me about these creatures? I’m not familiar with this race.”
"Who are these gray people then? From all we've been told it isn't all that easy for a whole group of outsiders to just move in and take up residence in this city without being noticed."
After simultaneously asking almost the same questions, Sabelina answers with what she knows, which isn't much.
"They're sneaky backstabbers, attacked us without warning, and never spoke to us at all. There also seems to be plenty of them."
Uller scratches his chin and adds, ”I know a little about them. They’re called Skulks. Lazy, cowardly, and mean creatures that live on the fringes, doin’ whatever is easiest to get by – theft mostly and murder if it makes it simpler to steal what they want. They got chameleon hides that lets them blend into walls and such. With a bit of thief skills, they’re a hazard. They’re more like to run away unless they got a strong leader to follow. And they're usually in small groups... or maybe you see a band of them. Any more than that and their crimes draw too much attention. The one that came flying out got past me. He could be anywhere, chameleoning to a wall.”
He belatedly appends a respectful, "Ma'am."
"From all we've been told it isn't all that easy for a whole group of outsiders to just move in and take up residence in this city without being noticed."
Odelai nods, "It shouldn't be. Large or open groups, we can keep an eye on... even with all the gates into the city. We've had some sneaky stowaways before, but not on this scale. We may need to rethink some things."