Cev uses 2 actions to get to his current position and make an assessment if the frog needs to be put down, or if Shadow & Rocco have it covered.
Oren moves to the north of the room so that he can flank with one of Dario's attackers before bringing his maul down upon it.
Caiten watches Cevendyll head back down the hallway. "Apparently not."
He calls out to Oren and Dario, "Oren, Dario. Fall back if you end up being too hard pressed."
Caiten then walks past the unconscious body of the ape creature on the floor, barely giving it a passing glance. He pulls out his second scroll of Heal as he moves. He stops in the doorway and brandishes both his scroll and his short sword, then shouts into the room, "Hey monkey-things. Backup has entered the room."
Caiten then casts Shield before any of the enemies have the time to attack him.
Caiten watches Cevendyll head back down the hallway. "Apparently not."
He calls out to Oren and Dario, "Oren, Dario. Fall back if you end up being too hard pressed."
Caiten then walks past the unconscious body of the ape creature on the floor, barely giving it a passing glance. He pulls out his second scroll of Heal as he moves. He stops in the doorway and brandishes both his scroll and his short sword, then shouts into the room, "Hey monkey-things. Backup has entered the room."
Caiten then casts Shield before any of the enemies have the time to attack him.
His attention snapping towards the noise coming from behind the door, Joran rolls his eyes as the sound is all too familiar. "Great. Just great. That's all we need to deal with now... a freaking bear. You do us all a favor and stay behind that door, big fella."
He then hears the crash of armor in the other room and his attention shoots back the other way. "What the blazes was that! Oren, Dario, how you holding up?! Sounds like Alak may be down! Hang in there, boys! I'm gonna see what's going on in the other room!" he yells to them as he makes his way to said room, "Coming through, Caiten!" passing the android as he does.
Seeing that the armor clad warrior has fallen, the barbarian's anger just continues to rise. "We got a soldier down! Need some healing in here! I'm about to smash me some ape face!" he hollers as he brings his flail around in a wide arc from right to left, aiming straight for the side of it's skull.
Missing HORRIBLY as the sweat from his palms caused him to lose his grip upon the flail and nearly drop it, Joran yells in frustration before reinforcing his grip and swinging again at the ape-man.
Missing again, Joran looks over at Yasamina with a great deal of concern. "Don't go toe to toe with these things, Yasamina! Let them come at me and then do what you do best!" he nods, knowing how well she is at dancing in and out of combat. He then looks to the creatures, "LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING YOU STUPID <BLANKETY-BLANK> BEASTS! I SMASHED YOUR BUDDIES HEADS IN AND NOW I'M GONNA DO THE SAME TO YOU! COUNT ON IT!" he vows with a furious passion. C'mon you pieces of garbage, come to ol' Joran. Stay away from Yasamina and focus on me. I can't have her fall too. I just can't. And don't you die on me, Alak. Hang in there, buddy, we are GOING to get to you. Whatever it takes.
Lisi gestures, his eyes going grey, and utters words in Druidic.
Rocks fall on the western monkey-humanoid and the northern frog-humanoid.
Lisi's eyes glow reddish as he completes the spell.
"Coming through, Caiten!"
Caiten hastily stands to one side of the doorway before he becomes another obstacle that Joran forcibly removes from his path. "Of course, Joran. Good to see you. You will likely be able to get their attention much more reliably than I will. I'll see to getting Alak back on his feet."
"And did I hear you say 'bear' just a bit ago?" he says with a bit of concern noticeable in his voice.
Yasamina sighs. "Back in a moment, lads. Let me just get this sleeping lad out of the way."
She grabs Alak and starts dragging him towards the corridor, pretending to talk to the armiger. "So rude to fall asleep when you are visiting, man. Don't they teach you manners at the Torturer Academy?"
She responds to herself with a lower voice, as if speaking for him. "No, ma'am. Just how to rip off nail and slice heels."
And she goes back to her own voice. "Well, maybe you should just try looking into some common decency on your own?"
And with a lower voice again. "I might need to."
She nods as the plate is screeching against the floor. "Yeap. Now you just sit here, and get some rest. I will go entertain our hosts. Ta-ta!", she pulls the Armiger towards the chair (I think it's a chair?), and looks at Lisi. "Can we do anything about the wounds, Lisi? He seems roughed up."
Oren and Joran found their foes suddenly rather slippery, dodging their dangerous but slower swings and remaining frustratingly unharmed.
Even Lisi, raining rocks from above, is barely able to touch them. A few of the stones deal glancing blows.
Dario takes to two hard strikes, each one knocking the wind out of him. The dexterous, tough man still stays standing, weaving on his feet for a moment as he lifts up the barrel of his pistol.
"Is that all you got, punk?" Dario growls, firing a shot at the one between him and Oren now.
The frog man dodges out of the way of the attack, giving Dario the chance to reload but otherwise coming up short on the attack.
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Caiten is glad to hear the sound of Dario's pistol sounding off again. He glances back through the doorway though, and is less glad to see how badly Dario is staggering as he repositions. "Cevendyll, we really could use some large amounts of healing on a couple of people. Dario doesn't look like he is going to last more than another 5 seconds or so. I can reach him, but you will have to get to Alak. Healing everyone a little bit is likely to be less useful than healing the gravely injured by a lot."
Dario's shot hits, though the follow-up misses.
The frogs in the western room press their attack, the one by the door moving to follow Dario, seeing the potential weakness of his injuries.
His eagerness proves his undoing as he fails to land a hit on the nimble gunslinger. His partner attacks Oren with abandon, not wanting to lose the momentum of the fight.
One strike lands on Oren's shoulder soundly, and he feels the shock down along his arm.
The enemies to the east likewise advance, following the retreating Yasami. Two break off to face Joran.
Joran is more than ready for the ape, but the frog gets a hit past his defences. The second ape follows Yasami and unleashes its hatchets against her.
Even burdened as she is, she ducks the blows.
"I'll get to Alak--you get Dario," says Lisi with a grimace.
He steps back to get clear of the melee and focuses on the downed Hellknight.
Maybe he can put in a good word with the Chelaxian guard...doubtful, muses the half-elf.
He gestures and speaks in the mysterious language of nature.
"Sounds like a plan. These creatures do a remarkable amount of damage. Hopefully that will keep Alak going for a bit. It also looks like someone may need to heal Joran shortly too."
Caiten casts his Heal scroll at the little bit of Dario that he can see.
I'm assuming that Joran isn't going to be retreating any time soon, so I might as well make use of that. Caiten casts Needle of Vengeance between Joran and the frog creature.
Managing to avoid a plethora of attacks, Joran was not able to avoid one of the frog's attacks and it catches him squarely in the jaw with its club, causing the side of his face to swell instantly and forcing blood to go flying freely from his mouth. "Oh crap," he mutters as a glop of blood spills from his mouth and hits the floor.
Gathering his wits about him - and knowing he's taken a wicked hit - he looks to the frog with fury and attacks it and its allies with raging abandon.
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With things looking bleak and nothing left to lose, Joran swings with even a fury he's never known and manages to OBLITERATE one of the ape creatures. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he yells out another scream of furious victory as the ape man's head explodes and its lifeless body falls to the floor. "IF I'M GOING DOWN, THEN I'M TAKING SOME OF YOU FREAKS DOWN WITH ME!!!"
Cev quickly speaks in Elvish sending a directed wave of positive energy at Joran
Dario feels a rush of healing run through his being, his body's aches suspending as energy was restored back to him. There was an imperceptible tilt of his head towards Caiten before he launched him back into combat. He focused on the enemy right before him, hoping to eliminate him and put them back into proper numbers; two against one.
Another shot is fired off, catching the boggard square in the stomach. Slashing in with his shortsword, Dario sought to plunge the blade deep through the collar bone and eliminate this danger.
The boggard wisely ducks underneath the attack, coming up only to see a barrel pointed directly at its abdomen. Dario fires again, another eruption of gunpowder from the left room.
Yasmaina continues pulling the armiger. Weapons swish above her head.
"bugger off! Can't you see I'm doing something here?", she screams at the attackers.
Oren swings thrice at the frogman Dario shot at!
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Alak shakes his head as he comes to, clearing his head. He is disoriented for a moment as he watches the ceiling slide by in front of him...above him? He realizes he's on his back, and tips his head back to see why he's moving, spotting Yasami. He frowns as he processes this, still fuzzy from nearly dying. "Do you drag all your dates home with you?" he said, voice slightly slurred. Shaking away more of the cobwebs, he recalls the situation and stops her, clambering to his feet. He reaches back to draw his sword, but of course, he dropped it where he fell. "Well s+#@."
This is the first fight Joran's been in with his friends where things have felt truly dangerous. They've been unstoppable so far -- seeing Alak drop makes him imagine the other suffering the same fate.
Not on his watch.
Cue the Led Zepplin Immigrant Song
Joran spun up his flail so it would gain momentum, NAILING the frog man with an uppercut to the chin and nearly snapping his neck, big glops of spit flying up to hit the ceiling.
BOOM. The flail completed one more orbit and spun around sideways suddenly into the temple of the monkey threatening Yasami, dropping it dead instantly.
Joran started screaming and the other ape faltered, ready to run for it. But there was no running from a barbarian enraged. Joran spun up the flail again and leapt into the air, bringing the spinning chuck of metallic death down with the entire force of his body. The ape's head literally exploded like an overripe melon, brain matter splattering all present.
The odds were suddenly looking much better. "Well, s$%!." Alak said again, approvingly this time.
Right as Joran was basking in his victory, Cev's heal hit him and he felt his wounds knitting closed.
The fight starts turning in your favor in the western room as well -- Dario, reinvigorated by Caiten's heal, stares death at the frog before him and fires twice at point blank range. Both shots penetrate the creature's gut and it leans forward, hands pressed over the bleeding wounds, momentarily in shock. Oren takes advantage of the opening, bringing his maul down on the back of the creature's head, caving in the massive skull.
In the other room, the bound frog tests the knots holding him...
The ropes don't budge, and Shadow approaches, Rocco right behind her, both growling menacingly. The prisoner quiets and stays still, not wishing to have his throat ripped out by puppies, as it would be difficult to think of a more embarrassing way to go.
The frog in the room with Joran falls to his knees, dropping his club and covering his head, surrendering in near panic and begging in his native tongue for mercy.
The frog facing Dario and Oren looks the bulkier man dead in the eyes. In very broken common he croaks, "He is return. You all die. Everything burns." His words became a ribbiting you interpreted as laughter, and he attacked Oren with the abandon of a zealot not afraid of giving his life for his god. It was then Oren noticed the religious symbol around this one's neck.
The symbol of Dahak.
Oren, distracted by the sudden confirmation that his visions were real, that he was meant to be here, and that this minion of evil seemed to recognize him, lowered his defenses at just the wrong moment. The club slammed into his head, and everything went white, his ears ringing. The second blow landed and white became blackness.
You feel as though you're leaving your body, as you suddenly see yourself flying back into the main room where you fought the birds. Your vision hurtles you towards the pile of rubble that remains of the stairs, and you move through it as a ghost might, down, down, deep into the earth. There, under tons upon tons of rock, you see it.
A round room with six archways. Alseta's Ring.
You hear a roar that would strike terror into the soul of anyone except you. You feel only rage at this foe's existence.
A powerful force rails against the archways -- the portals -- trying to break free. Like a battering ram, you feel the vibrations of its impacts against its prison walls.
And then, the vision fades, and you see and hear no more.
Caiten watches Joran drop a couple of the enemies here and feels a lot more confident about the outcome of this particular battle. He turns around to see how things are going in the other room and watches Oren pauses with a stunned expression on his face for a moment too long and gets thoroughly bludgeoned. "Well, that's a problem."
He quickly stumbles across the bodies of the unconscious and dead creatures and stands in the doorway to the other room. "Dario, I don't have any more magical healing left. But I am fairly certain that Oren is carrying a couple of potions. We will have to retrieve them from his pack in order to administer them. I can do that in a few seconds if you want to continue pressing the attack."
Caiten looks at the frog creature. "As for you..." Caiten casts Fear.
Hexes
Stoke the Heart
Phase Familiar
Needle of Vengeance
Cantrips
Shield
Forbidding Ward
Daze
Light
Detect Magic
1st
Phantom Pain
Magic Weapon
Fear
"Oren! Dario's cry of alarm reached out as he watched the boggard bring down his club against his comrade's head. Righteous fury ran through him as he launched a flurry of swipes and stabs, aiming to catch the boggard off-balanced. In between the strikes, there was another boom of the man's pistol between the flurry of strikes.
Sulee watches Caiten run back and forth between these two rooms. "Caiten, you aren't about to do something incredibly stupid are you?"
Caiten calls back to his familiar, "Of course not. I'm expecting that I have at least a 38% chance of survival. It is a calculated risk."
"Right. Because that is somehow different."
"Right. Because that is somehow different."
"Yes little one, quite different. When the lines get blurry, and the odds are stacked, and your priority continues to be your friends and comrades, we generally do not say stupid in those cases. We say brave. We say loyal. We say heroic. There is another word we have in Elven too: courage. Let your creator create; he is about to cast a very special spell on you, it's called Pride."
The frog feels the spell seep into him, trying to panic him, and he mostly fights it off. Mostly. He knows this battle is lost. His companions were too weak. Dahak would not be pleased. Would the god still reward him, for his own efforts? Doubt crept in, distracting him.
Dario strikes fast, keeping the bastard frog from finishing off Oren. Stabbing viciously, then shooting him in the chest, then stabbing again, the frog finds itself suddenly grievously wounded. It still has breath within it, however, though it has shifted its attention firmly to Dario for the moment.
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Lisi moves up.
"Frogs tend to burn in fire. And do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning?"
He raises a hand, glowing with tiny sparks, and speaks primal words.
Cevendyl moves to the corridor and faces the last frog who downed Oren.
Taking in the scene ...
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Yasamina gives Alak a dirty look. Not the good kind, either. "I am absolutely not discussing my personal life with the likes of you, armiger."
She looks at the frog man. "Besides, I have work to do."
She charges the frog man, feinting a strike on the way, but instead attempts to jump over the creature to flank it with Joran. "You think having the number advantage is fun now, you slimy bastard? I will make soup out of you -AND- your friends.", she shouts at the creature as she swings her blade at the ... thing.
Joran feels some of his wounds mend but is too involved with trying to take these creatures down to think anything about it. "Should've thought about surrendering before you tried to kill us all, frog freak!!!" the barbarian yells, swinging in tandem with the swashbuckler.
As his strike lands right after Yasamina's, Joran doesn't concern himself with whether or not the beast is dead as he immediately snaps his attention toward the adjacent room, concerned with what may have happened to Oren. "What's wrong, Dario?! Is Oren alright?! Never mind, here I come! Coming through, people!" the big fella yells, making his way through allies and around unconscious ape men.
Noticing a fallen Oren, Joran clenches his jaw in anger and looks to the last standing enemy with glaring hate. "The rest of your team is dead, frog freak! YOU'RE NEXT!" he vows emphatically, raising the flail high and bringing it down hard towards the creature.
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Caiten calls out to Sulee, "It looks like my own survival rate has just increased dramatically."
He then moves over to Oren and rummages through his pack until he finds one of the healing potions that were stored there. "It isn't much, but it will keep you from dying on us." He administers the potion to Oren as best as he can to the unconscious man.
He looks in mild irritation at the rather minimal effects of the potion. "We really shouldn't trust healing items that we scavenge from ancient ruins."
Yasami and Joran make quick work of the cowardly frog in the eastern room, and Joran brings the thunder to the west, where he helps Lisi and Dario finish off the zealot who knocked Oren out.
Oren blinks back to awareness with the worst headache he's ever had, waking from the nightmare vision to find himself on his back looking up at Caiten.
Caiten looks up at Joran. "Joran. You haven't yet answered
What were you saying about a bear?"
Dario helps Oren down from where he was, slinging an arm around the broad man's shoulders.
"You alright, friend? You seemed to have tested your jaw a bit too much, made the whole damn earth shake when you fell." The gunslinger attempts to joke, realizing how badly off his comrade was looking. "The fight is over for now, we won. You certainly saved my life."
Oren grunts and groans as Dario pulls him up. Despite not being in any immediate danger of dying, he doesn't look anywhere near all right. "Mmm. My head feels like it's about to explode. But I'm glad that you're okay, Dario. The others, are they all right?"
"Well, once you get back on your feet, then I can answer that we are all still standing. Most of us are injured to some extent though. I think we are all going to need some time to recover from that battle. And I don't recommend doing it here."
"There is also still the bound frog creature to deal with." A sudden realization crosses Caiten's expression. "Cevendyll, didn't you also knock out one of those ape creatures with Admonishing Ray too? One moment." Caiten hurries out of this room and back into the central room to check on the ape.
"Does anyone have any more rope, or should I just fix the problem with my sword?"
"Well, once you get back on your feet, then I can answer that we are all still standing. Most of us are injured to some extent though. I think we are all going to need some time to recover from that battle. And I don't recommend doing it here."
"There is also still the bound frog creature to deal with." A sudden realization crosses Caiten's expression. "Cevendyll, didn't you also knock out one of those ape creatures with Admonishing Ray too? One moment." Caiten hurries out of this room and back into the central room to check on the ape.
"Does anyone have any more rope, or should I just fix the problem with my sword?"
"The sword seems like the correct way to go in this case; it probably is with the frog as well."
Yasamina looks around for any stragglers. Once she is satisfied and reassured that nobody is in sight, she decides to just crash on the floor next to the tied up frog man, giving him the stinkeye while others catch their breath. She looks at the humanoid, and attempts to communicate. "Can you understand me?"
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"Before you gut them, talk to the frogs. The one in here spoke broken Common." Dario shouts, hearing the conversation between the others. Helping hoist Oren up, he brushes himself off and can feel the fatigue of the fight lingering on him. It was a hell of a skirmish and the smell of gunpowder, blood, and spells lingered in the air. He would move to assemble with the rest of them, giving them all a nod after looking at their wounds. Everyone had come out exhausted, beaten badly, or both. His eyes lingered over Alek and a quick chuckle left him as he nodded. "What's the point of all that armor if you let that pretty face get beaten to hell, armor-boy?" Dario's grin was wide as he leaned against the wall and checked over his firearm again, polishing out a bit of dust and blood with his sleeve.
"Having few words," the prisoner croaked to Yasami.
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Caiten dispatches the ape and returns to the entryway corridor, motioning to Sulee to follow as he passes.
"Having few words," the prisoner croaked to Yasami.
"That is inefficient. My native language is too obscure and I doubt that such a creature would learn the language of Celestials, but I can try a couple of others."
"Can you understand the language of the Elves?"
"Does your mind comprehend the majesty of the language of Dragons?"
"Will your puny frame withstand even the words of the Abyss?"
Lisi nods grimly at Caiten and the ongoing interrogation, and goes to search the dead. "Rocco, Shadow, Guba. Let's have a look at our visitors now that they are at rest."
Caiten pauses for a moment to collect his thoughts and reframe them in Draconic. He then continues speaking in his normal unemotional manner. "Well then, slug. Do you have anything to say to your betters? How did you manage to squirm your way into this lair? You say you have a master. Do you know your master's name? Or are you too lowly to be trusted with even that?"
As the last enemy falls, "I told you that you were next."
Caiten looks up at Joran. "Joran. You haven't yet answered. What were you saying about a bear?"
Shooting a quick glance over at Caiten, Joran is far too preoccupied with checking on the status of his fellow barbarian to bother responding. Sheathing his weapon as his fury dies down, he looks over at the rousing Oren and quickly moves to help Dario pull him up.
Oren grunts and groans as Dario pulls him up. Despite not being in any immediate danger of dying, he doesn't look anywhere near all right. "Mmm. My head feels like it's about to explode. But I'm glad that you're okay, Dario. The others, are they all right?"
"Well, once you get back on your feet, then I can answer that we are all still standing. Most of us are injured to some extent though. I think we are all going to need some time to recover from that battle. And I don't recommend doing it here."
Nodding, "Everybody's good. Well... for the most part. Pretty much what Caiten just said. Glad to see you're still with us, buddy," he nods, grinning tiredly, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder.
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"Does anyone have any more rope, or should I just fix the problem with my sword?"
"The sword seems like the correct way to go in this case; it probably is with the frog as well."
"I'm with Cev... on both counts. Put an end to the ape man and the frog as far as I'm concerned."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Joran then finds himself a wall to lean against as he sits down. "Where's Lisi? I think I'll have that berry now." Covered in sweat and random spatters of blood - both his own and the enemies - the barbarian takes a moment to catch his breath. Then remembering something, "Oh yeah, I need to give you all a heads up. Whatever you do, DON'T go down that middle hallway and open that door. There's a bear trapped within. At least, I hope it's trapped. If it busts out of there, well, I really don't feel like dealing with a bear right now so let's just not go there, m-kay? Good. I'm glad we're in agreement," he says, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. "Just need to catch my breath a moment," he mutters. His mind then trails back to Breachill. To a specific tavern he's very fond of; or more precisely, to a certain tavern owner.
With his head back and his eyes closed, a smile forms upon the big guy.
"Ah, a berry? Yes, can do..." Lisi looks up from his looting-in-progress.
Seeing that Caiten speaks to the creature, Yasmaina sits next to him. "Ask why are they here. And in what numbers.", she nudges Caiten gently, then looks at the creature to scan the response.