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Maddy began to feel a little off. She felt an angry frustration deep inside herself that caused the edges of her vision to blacken and waiver.
Her knees buckled and she gasped in surprise, clutching her head as she fell to the ground. Seconds later, her back straightened and her form seemed to grow in size. A throaty chuckle emanated from Maddy and she hisses, “Yes!”
She grabs Ziyad’s chain and breaks it, “You helped free that whelp so now you’re even.”
Maddy’s form then moves to the fish man. “If you’re crazy like they say then we’ll need you.”
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Ksenia stares in awe at Maddy's rage and chains snapping like saplings. Unblinking and not looking away from Maddy, she leans over to Alex: "Remind me never to make Maddy mad."
I'll remind you too. Kalanzar looks at it thoughtfully. Is everyone free? Are we ready?
Jimjar looks at the saw, and at Alex's gloves. He winces, then says, "I don't know if that's a good idea. Not a precision tool, this. I think I'm likely to cut your hand, and the runes." He offered the tool to Ksenia, asking, "Feel free, but I think we should get a knife first."
At the gate, Ront looks out, making no attempt at stealth, and begins to open the gate.
Alexandra tries to wiggle out of the gloves, she actually hasnt tried that before.
When suddenly "boom".
Stupid Orc! She snarls in Elvish.
This boom is what happens if you try to steal these gloves, I would like few things more then handing them off to you, but if you really want a pair, ask Lady Ilvara, or display spell casting in front of her. I am sure they will suit you most fabulously.
As Alex tries to wriggle her hands out of the gloves, she triggers the same magical trap that Maddy did when she tried to get out of them. A sound like a clap of thunder, which seemed doubly loud in the confines of the slave cavern.
Everybody either cowers from the sound, or stares in shock at Alexandra. Ront turns to Alexandra and scowls, "Stupid human!" Those nearest the door hear footsteps approaching the gate.
Ront, my friend. To get out of here we have to act smart. Be silent now. Don't hit him. Grab him. Drow takes out 5 feet of excellent rope from under his clothes. All this time it was tied around his chest. Jimjar, take it and tie his legs so that he doesn't run away. And I'll put a gag in his mouth. Kalanzar quickly tears off several pieces of cloth, saying all this. No, we're not going to feel sorry for him. We're going to stop him from yelling and running away. Everyone else. Grab the guard and hit him with what you can and how you can. Your wounds can be healed. Ksenia, Maddy, I'm counting on you.
The sound of a drow drawing near freezes Ksenia's blood. The beatings, the days of starvation, their casual cruelty all blazes up inside her. We were so close! So close! I won't be chained again. I WON'T BE CHAINED AGAIN. She silently screams to herself, not even realizing that her thoughts would resonate through their telepathic collective.
Stool shrinks like a frightened turtle, withdrawing and folding inwards and the raw emotion. Others react in their own ways, but Ksenia doesn't notice at all, looking frantically for escape until Kalanzar's calm assertion of command gives structure, gives a path forward other than panic.
Ksenia spots a several foot length of chain discarded on the floor after Maddy's rage tore it apart. She wraps it several times around her forearm, grips the rest of it tightly in both hands, and with eyes ablaze stands ready to snap it viciously at whatever comes at them.
"See how they like their chains shoved down their throats." She mutters.
Topsy and Turvy grab the rags from Kalanzar and scurry up to the front of the cave, then hide just out of sight. Ront grunts his assent, and squats by the door, in a position he'd be in if he was still chained up.
The guard approaches the door, eyes narrowed and crossbow loaded and pointed through the bars. Peering into the cave he says in undercommon, "What's going on in here? Hey, why are you..."
Ront launches into action; he pulls the door open and grabs the guard by the front of his tunic, trying to pull him into the cave. The guard is taken completely by surprise and ends up on the floor of the cave, on his back. Momentarily winded, he still takes the opportunity to shoot upwards at the orc. He shoots Ront straight in the chest, the poisoned bolt sinking into a bulging pectoral muscle. He grunts, pulls it out, and shakes off the poison's effect.
Ziyad has a magic bolt ready, but when he tries to cast it, it fizzles in his hands. The roof, walls and floor of the cave pulse briefly with a faint purple light, which immediately fades.
Topsy and Turvy swarm over the guard, stuffing rags into his mouth before he can cry out a warning.
Kalanzar's face shows great doubt and even pity for this drow. He is clearly looking in his head for arguments to keep him alive now... Eventually he puts his hand on Ront's back. Do it.
Kalanzar turns away.
Knocking him out could make him better spider bait
Alex cautions, pretty non plussed.
Tit for Tat leaves a lot of Drow dead She thinks as she says this.
I don't think spiders care if the meat is alive as long as it's fresh.
Drow says it softly and sadly, without turning around. It's obviously hard for him.
"For f@*~s sake! It seems Madison isn't the only weak one here," Maddy's form growled before crushing the drow guard's head with repeated blows from her fists. Maddy's form chuckled, "It's great to finally be in control."
She smeared droplets of blood on her cheek in an attempt to wipe them away. She grabbed the scimitar, "Not a greatsword but it'll do. Let's get more weapons, shall we?" She turns her gaze to Jimjar, "I may need your help with the trap door if it's locked."
"Shouldn't have made Maddy mad," Ksenia mutters to the dead drow. "That's just common sense." Ksenia grabs the dagger off of his belt and turns to Alex.
"Fingers crossed!" She says and whips the dagger out with a quick but measured set of slices between the runes on the gloves before anyone can think too hard about it.
The gloves flutter to the ground a moment later and Ksenia blinks in surprise at herself. "This escape is off to an excellent start!" She cheerfully announces.
Ksenia then looks around, wraps the chain tighter around her forearm, and offers the dagger by the hilt to the rest of the group. "We seem to have a shortage of real weapons, and this chain will do me for now if someone needs a blade."
Alex right now:
YesYesYes I have hands again!
Come Ksenia She whipsers, while removing some of her eyelashes (ingredient for invisibility), before advancing out of the cave, noting that Ziyads magic did not work inside.
Midnight ward thee from their sight She makes Ksenia invisible, before retreating into the cave again.
You are invisible until 1 hour has passed, my concentration is broken, you attack someone or cast a spell
To Topsy and Torvy, Telepathically via Stool,
Stick close to me for now, I can attack with magiks from range, great job with the Drow you 2!
"Shouldn't have made Maddy mad,"
"I'm still trying to decide if I should laugh or be insulted that you think Maddy is capable of such elegance." Her form dipped a hand back into the drow guard's blood and smeared more of it in Maddy's hair and on her skin so she wouldn't be so noticeable in the dark. "I can feel that she seems to be partial to you and the others in this cave so I will choose to laugh since you wouldn't like what I do when insulted."
Having stripped the guard of everything useful, Maddy's form moves towards the exit, "So the plan is to kill everyone, right?" She swoons a bit and braces herself against the wall with a hand. Through clenched teeth she growls, "Not now! I'm finally starting to have fun..."
Ksenia looks down, doubletakes that she cannot actually see herself, and then tiptoes in circles to evaluate whether anyone else can see her. Having satisfied herself that she is actually invisible, she hisses from ten feet away from where she started: "This is SO awesome!" and then claps her hands over her mouth in case talking would break the spell.
When it doesn't, Ksenia declares: "I'll see about getting us some weapons and armor. The guard tower just outside is probably the best bet, but the most dangerous, so let me see what's down the ramp to the right that we haven't been too before just in case there's easier pickings there."
Ksenia picked her way carefully down the steps. At the bottom she found a large cavern, with not gate or door. An unpleasant odor came from within. Peering carefully around the corner, she saw that this was clearly where the quaggoth servants lived. Several nest-like mounds of derbis littered the floor, with three quaggoths resting in some of them. If there was anything useful in the cave, she couldn't see it from here.
Just past the quaggoth den was the end of Valkynvelve. A sentry outpost looked north over the pool and the cavern beyond. A bored-looking drow sat on a crate, sharpening a dagger as he kept watch.
Ok, Ksenia turns around, comes back up and sneaks across the bridge to the guard post and checks to see if the door is unlocked.
If unlocked, try to quietly open the door:
If locked, try to quietly pick the lock:
This room doesn't have doors. The rope bridge goes directly to the open guard room, and then another rope bridge goes out the other side. It's all quite open so the guards can keep an eye on both sides of the outpost. Usually there are three guards posted here, but you've taken one of them out. The remaining two are sitting in chairs talking quietly.
Ksenia, ever so conscious of how some magic she does not understand is keeping the vicious guards from seeing her, tip toes through the guard room and out the other side to the other rope bridge. She then quickly crosses over that bridge and tries to see about getting into the next blackened area (the next one she comes to on the right while moving down the ledge -- i.e. the black circle straight north of 3 and straight west of 9 on the map)
Ksenia sneaks carefully past the guards, who don't see her. She has a scary moment on the second bridge, as halfway across she realizes a quaggoth is approaching the bridge from the other direction. She hurries across as best she can , and ducks to the side before it starts across.
The next hanging tower has a small bridge to it, which she crosses cautiously. It has solid door, with a spider carved into it. The door is locked. She can hear voices from inside, speaking undercommon.
The two caves past the main hall are barracks for the drow guards. They have gates across them, but they don't seem to be locked at the moment. There are two guards resting in the first cavern, and one in the second.
The main hall has three drow talking animatedly at one of the tables, and a few quaggoth at another.
The last two hanging towers are directly connected to the ledge, and both doors are locked.
Ksenia decides that the barracks with only one guard in it is likely the safest route to trying to find some weapons. She reaches out via the Stool collective and whispers to their brains "Going to try something stupid, if you hear a ruckus, probably should raise hell!"
Ksenia tries to quietly inch the gate open and slip inside:
The meditating drow does not notice Ksenia's entrance. He is sitting on a cot, with a bundle of items underneath it. It looks like it's likely his armour and weapons.
Five other empty cots have nothing underneath. Each cot has a chest at the end of it.
As the meditating drow is in the center cot, Ksenia carefully checks out the chest nearest the door. It's unlocked, and contains two changes of drow clothes, a vial of some sort of liquid, a whistle carved out of some golden coloured wood, and a bright green feather.
My part. Kalanzar touches his scarring patterns, whispering prayers in a language unknown to you all Then he shoulders the body of a dead drow, asking Ront to help - Kalanzar clearly took him under his wing. He will also ask orc to stand guard secretly so that the druid himself can not be distracted from witchcraft.
Did you want to see how these spiders feed? You'll see it on our captors soon! - and he slaps Ront on the shoulder while blood drips from the corpse...
Than he comes forward as stealthily as possible, after which he throws the corpse onto the spider net below.
The druid squats down, praying to all his goddesses not to be noticed. He sees that the spider web ripples after the fall of the body, and soon the spiders appear. He says the words again in an unfamiliar language and these are clearly the words of some spell. Then he starts whispering to the spiders, but the language is still not clear to the listeners .
Hey! Yr wyf yn dod â chi rhywbeth i'w fwyta! Ydych chi'n ei hoffi? Ydych chi eisiau mwy o'r un peth du cig? Yna mynd i fyny i'r dde nawr o hynny ochr ac yn dechrau bwyta y mawr-clustiog rhai. Peidiwch â phoeni am y Wraig, byddwn yn cymryd gofalu am ei.
and he points south towards the caves with the Drow barracks. .
-
The meditating drow does not notice Ksenia's entrance. He is sitting on a cot, with a bundle of items underneath it. It looks like it's likely his armour and weapons.
Five other empty cots have nothing underneath. Each cot has a chest at the end of it.
As the meditating drow is in the center cot, Ksenia carefully checks out the chest nearest the door. It's unlocked, and contains two changes of drow clothes, a vial of some sort of liquid, a whistle carved out of some golden coloured wood, and a bright green feather.
Ksenia slips a drow shirt over her head from the nearby chest - while they are an evil people, they understand utility and design clothes with as many pockets as cargo shorts - and pockets the vial, whistle, and feather. She then tip toes carefully over to the meditating drow ...
If he doesn't react, she attempts to slide the bundle out and leave with it:
As Ksenia tiptoed towards the drow, her feet crunched in the loose grit on the floor. The guard stirred, opening his eyes and turning his head. Seeing nothing, he closed his eyes again.
Breathing silently in relief, the dwarf crept closer and tried to slide the bundle out from under the bed. However, it was too large, and caught on the edge of the cot. "Who's there?!" the drow demanded, swinging his legs over the side of the cot, nearly touching Ksenia's outreached arm.
Kalanzar and Ront keep a careful eye on the guards in the watchtower, hoping they don't turn around when the gate squeaks open. There is a tense moment, but the guards don't notice. Ront and Kalanzar quickly slip out of view, towards the quaggoth cavern, carrying the guard's body.
Alpha spider succeed
Beta spider fail
Two spiders come over to investigate the meal. One replies to the Kalanzar, The mistress...we listen to the mistress.... A second spider, however, seems interested in the offer. Yessss..... It scuttles out of sight, towards the guard tower.
Kalanzar will talk to the remaining spider
Still inside the slave cave, und cover, Alexandra is coiled to strike when chaos erupts.
To Szarith, Topsy, Turvy via Stool
Sirs Szarith and Topsy, Lady Turvy, when it comes to battle, I plan to strike using eldritch magic from a distance. We are fighting intelligent adversaries, who will likely attempt to target me in melee, this could, in my estimation, give you the opportunity to strike at them from surprise and concealment.
It was dark. Darker than Maddy could ever remember. She couldn't see anything and she couldn't hear anything. It was eerie and unsettling. She tentatively called out, Hello? Was our escape successful?"
She thought she could feel the rest of her body but she didn't feel like she could control her movements. She wondered why her hands felt sticky.
She tried again, Ksenia? Alex? Ziyad? Maddy cocked her head trying to listen and thought she began to hear some words but they were all muffled like she was under water. Wait...kill? We're killing everyone?
Then she felt slapped before hearing someone hiss, "Not now! I'm finally starting to have fun..." Maddy reached out in the complete darkness groping for her attacker but found nothing.
Come back and fight, you coward!
Meanwhile, Maddy's form moved quietly towards the exit of the slave cave. If weapons didn't appear soon they'd have to get them themselves.
The spider seemed to consider Kalanzar's words, then began to climb up the wall. A moment later, it entered the quaggoth's cave. Shouts and the sounds of fighting erupted seconds later.
In the watch tower, the guards jumped from their chairs. They seemed to suddenly realize that their third companion had not yet returned. The two guards left the tower together, moving across the swaying bridge towards the slave pen.
They immediately noticed that Kalanzar and Ront were standing outside of the slave pen. Alarmed, they both brought their crossbows up and aimed, and one of them shouted,
As Ksenia crouched, frozen, silent, hoping the drow would go back to sleep, she heard a shout in undercommon. The drow reacted immediately, leaping up and pulling his bundle out from under his cot. He began to hurriedly pull his armour on, clearly reacting to whatever had been shouted.
Moving out of the cave, Ducking behind Ront, Alex takes aim at the shouting drow and attempts to hit his legs, hopeing to make him fall down or entangle himself, after momentarily considering to blow up the bridge, but decideing against it.
Blyad, Keep this drow-Dolbajeb-Duraks out of the cave while the ritual of my Patrons summoning is in progress, awfully nice of the 2 Cuka-b~@@#es to provide us with hijackable magical energy for it Weaving a deception in Elfish and Abyssal (for the swearwords) to make the drow charge, rather then be smart, use chokepoints and just pick them off at range.
Before retreating towards the cover of the cave, as if guarding it.
Where topsy and turvy stealthily lie in stealth for now, assuming the roll their own and not the GMs awesome 20s, otherwise they are probably in stealth in the cave?
As Ksenia crouched, frozen, silent, hoping the drow would go back to sleep, she heard a shout in undercommon. The drow reacted immediately, leaping up and pulling his bundle out from under his cot. He began to hurriedly pull his armour on, clearly reacting to whatever had been shouted.
Ksenia froze as the guard seemed to hear her, daring not to even move a hair as he yelled who was there.
No no no no no no no no no She whispered in her mind, careful not to bother the Stool collective. She held her breath, hoping he'll go back to meditating.
Just as he relaxes and Ksenia relaxes, a shout comes from outside and he leaps into action, dressing and arming himself.
Well ... here goes nothing She thinks to herself and then yells to the Stool collective: "I'm gonna start smashing drow in the barracks, you start down there, we'll meet in the middle!"
Ksenia takes a deep breath and winds up to whip her chain right into the drow's throat before he can get properly equipped.
Eldeth stands quietly, picking her nails with the dagger, suspiciously watching Ront pace around. She has every intention of shanking him if he gets out of line.
The shouts rouse her though, first of the drow guards, and then Ksenia screaming in her brain.
"Well," she announces gruffly. "If I'm dying, I'm dying out there."
She charges out the gates, screaming at the top of her lungs the battlecry of her people: "För mina förfäder och stenarna i deras ben och hem!"
"For my ancestors and the stones of their bones and their homes!"
Without wasting words and time in vain, Kalanzar casts a spell towards the one of the drow who has already been wounded by Alexandra. His skin starts to get covered like frost.
It's time for war, Ront. Rip out their eyes! Kalanzar's words sound fierce. He himself retreats slightly to the entrance of the cave to shield himself from the bolts, but is clearly preparing to cast the next spell.
The complete darkness that Maddy had been in begins to dissipate and she sees the slave cave once more. She felt completely disoriented and was having trouble understanding how she had gotten a sword in her hand, why she was covered with blood, and how she had gotten to the exit of the cave. Before she can ask anyone any questions, the alarm is raised and she just reacts.
Maddy sprinted out of the cave searching for any drow guards to impale with the sword in her hand. It wasn't the sword that she was used to but she knew she could make it do more damage than her fists.
Topsy and Turvy:
I think this is correctly for their currently unarmed attacks.
Feel free to look at the rolls. They're out of order because I roll them as I write it, then I rearrange the narrative to make sense, but if I rearrange the rolls then they all change. Whenever possible, I'll roll them in order, and if there's an AoE or perception rolls, or anything like that, I'll roll them alphabetically so you know I'm being unbiased.
Also there's a slide in the deck with action recap for the PCs and NPCs. Not sure if it helps....I'm just trying a thing.
Fail
HAHA nope
Miss
Hit
Fail, poisoned for 1 minute
Haha nope
The alarm was sounded. Everybody in the small outpost of Valkynvelve heard it. Some of the drow were resting, and leapt up to pull on armour and grab weapons. Ilvara and Shoor, distracted from their "free time", untangle themselves from spidersilk sheets. Jorlan, standing "guard" outside their room, smiles an unseen smile.
In the cave, Buppido, Sarith and Prince Darendil rush out towards the increasingly crowded platform. Shuushar, the pacifist kuo-toa stands inside the cave, watching curiously.
Maddy snaps out of her "rage" and rushes at the two drow aiming crossbows on the bridge. The one in front has a shield at his side (DE1), but doesn't have time to reach for it before the human is at him. Her scimitar cuts him lightly across the arm, and he drops his crossbow in preparation to draw his shortsword.
Alex tries a little bit of pageantry, though it's hard to know how much the drow were able to hear, what with Maddy being up in their faces with a scimitar. Her magical bolt flies true, however, and strikes the drow behind the one Maddy is fighting.
Eldeth also joins the group outside of the cave, and considers joining Maddy on the bridge. But there's no room past the big human to get at the drow, so the dwarf stays put for the moment.
Maddy's opponent draws his sword and tried to slash at her, but the bridge was wobbling and he'd been unprepared for the ferocity of her attack. Furious with himself for missing, he yelled at the drow behind him, "Get back, pick them off!"
The drow obeyed, retreated to the guard tower, and shot at Ront. The orc took another arrow to the torso, and he staggered slightly as the poison began to act upon him.
From the quaggoth den come the sounds of snarling and the tearing of flesh.
Kalanzar lets a spell fly, and it hits the drow with the crossbow. Frost rimes his eyes and fingers, and he tries to shake it off, but can't.
Ront, furious with his wounds and egged on by Kalanzar, rushes the bridge. He elbows past Maddy, who lets him by rather than risk being the source of his fury. Wrapping his muscular arms around the drow, he pins his arms at his side and prepares to throw him off the bridge.
***
At the other end of Valkynvelve, Ksenia takes the drow guard completely by surprise, both with her appearance and her attack. He tries to call out an alarm, but her attack at his throat left him gasping in pain, and gasping for air. He flails at the dwarf, but his fists fail to connect.
Behind her, the dwarf hears the sounds of chaos as drow jump to respond to the alarm. Drow and quaggoth rush from the main hall, and those that were meditating grab weapons and armour. However, this somewhat orderly call to action is almost immediately compounded by the sounds of confusion, rapidly changing to alarm and fear, as three giant spiders climb up over the edge of the platform, and attack. One goes for the quaggoth who had been manning the lift, and two more scramble over and prepare to attack.
Asha, the junior priestess, rushes from the temple onto the short bridge connecting it to the ledge. She barely notices Jorlan standing there, "on guard". She does notice the spiders, and alarmed, runs towards them, speaking in a strange tongue.
Midnight has come for you! Intones Alexandra has she blasts at the second drow (whom she blasted before)
CRIT
Topsy, Turvy, try to grab and flee lying weapons!
Jimjar gathered useful items as he moved to exit the cave. Seeing the unclaimed crossbow and bolts, but knowing it was too big for him to wield effectively, he passed the weapon to Sarith. "I'm betting that you can make better use of this than me. Help those out that are trying to clear the way and stick a few of those bolts in the guards!"
He then pocketed the bottle of poison and the gold to add to other items he had squirrelled away. One of which was another crossbow bolt that he planned to use like a dagger should he have to. He crept out of the cave and kept out of sight the best he could.
Maddy reached out to catch the crossbow as the drow dropped it when she attacked.
Maddy pivoted being used to protecting her skittish flock in various landscapes. She knew she needed to push the guard back and make it difficult for the other one to shoot at those still at the cave. Throwing her full weight against the guard, she attempted to shove him back.
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Ksenia momentarily surges in excitement as her blow connects, and then squeaks as she realizes first that the invisibility shimmered away as she attacked and then as the drow guard lurched towards her.
She danced backwards, just out of reach of his lunging fists, and reflexively pulled back the chain and whipped it forward again right towards his unmentionables.
"If I fight fair I'm dead!"
But the chain found naught but air, and she squeaked again as the drow came on again.
At the other location, seeing Maddy wrestling with the guard, Eldeth scrambles forward and throws her considerable muscle into Maddy's back, helping her try to push the guard off the bridge.
Kalanzar repeats his spell, but directs it against a more distant drow, which Maddy and Ront have not yet reached.
Then he retreats back into the cave.
The moment Eldeth steps up to make it easier for Maddy, Ront, who is already holding this drow in his grip, decides that this is his chance. With a furious cry, he tries to push the drow down onto the net. At the same time, he accidentally hits the dwarf with his elbow in the nose, but happily grunts because of this.
Agreed, we'll lose the disadv for Ront, as Kalanzar's spell would have hit the guard (D1) first, giving him disadvantage, so we'll retcon Ront getting hit.
I updated the maps again. I'm leaving corpses on the map with a red cross on them (though mostly it looks like a red square due to scale). That's so you can remember there's weapons/armour lying around.
This charming the spiders strategy is killer. Kalanzar, take inspiration for it. Remember, I have a few other things that you can use inspiration for, they're under the campaign notes in my house rules.
Ksenia, take inspiration for making me snort-laugh with jibblies. :)
Ziyad's little piece of cultured chaos flew at the drow with the crossbow, and pierced his forehead. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Sarith, taking the crossbow and bolts offered to him by Jimjar, moved out of the cage, squeezed past Kalanzar, and moved slightly north. He knew the quaggoths would be coming out of their den soon, and he wanted to be ready.
Prince Derendil, his manner becoming decidedly less regal, followed the drow towards the den of his species.
Buppido made his way towards the edge of the swaying bridge, and seemed undecided. He clearly wanted to cross, though it was impossible to say if it was to help the fight or run away.
Maddy now had Ront between her and the guard. However, the orc had the guard in what looked like a death grip, and was likely about to try and heave him over the side of the bridge. Maddy did what she could to help; the drow was struggling mightily, but between Maddy and Ront, was seriously out-muscled.
Jimjar made it onto the ledge, saw that there were no immediate enemies to fight, and seemingly melted into the rocks, as was the way of his people.
Ront, Maddy and Eldeth worked more-or-less together, and managed to muscle the drow guard (DE1) off the bridge. His shriek as he fell was satisfying. Together, they moved towards the guard tower, Eldeth and Ront elbowing each other as they moved. They had to step over the body of the guard as they entered the guard tower.
Kalanzar was about to cast his spell on the crossbow wielder, but saw him go down under Ziyad's attack. The other guard had fallen, leaving them temporarily out of foes. Knowing that others would be coming soon, he made himself ready to cast frostbite at the first enemy to show his face.
Alexandra found herself in the same position, and likewise readied her attack.
The reprieve was brief, less than a few seconds for the escaping slaves to catch their breath. Two quaggoths surged out of their den, one still carrying the leg of a giant spider. Seeing the battle ahead, they raced up the stairs, undeterred by the sight of the Prince and Sarith, who stood ready for them.
Several spells and a crossbow bolt all blasted into the lead quaggoth. It took the bolt and the spells with little more than a few grunts, but then ran face-first into Prince Derendil.
All trace of the cultured prince was gone, and the besital quaggoth took over. There was a furious exchange of blows, and within seconds Derendil was bleeding and the other one was not. The second quaggoth climbed up the wall and came towards the rest of the group sideways, moving as quickly on the vertical cliff face as it would have running along the ground.
From the south, another quaggoth entered the fight. The one Ksenia had avoided earlier reached the guard tower, and launched himself at Ront. Its heavy claws slashed the orc viciously, and Ront was soon bleeding freely. The smell of blood seemed to enrage them both even further.
Ksenia hoped to take advantage of the guard's breathlessness, but her quick jab at his jibblies proved fruitless. Perhaps, despite her intention to fight dirty, the thought of unmanning him so made her pull her punch at the last moment. Or perhaps the guard, seeing what was coming, managed an acrobatic move to preserve said jibblies. Badly demoralized and unarmed, the guard threw himself backwards, out of reach of the demon-dwarf and her chain of doom. . He circled out of her reach and ran for the door. His shouts for help, however, went unheard, as those on the platform had their own battle to deal with.
The spiders were in furious battle with their former allies. Asha, seeing one of the spiders about to attack, threw herself at it, stroking it and speaking calming words. It gentled under her ministrations, and climbed back down off the platform.
The other two giant spiders, however, were unaware of the junior priestess's attempts. One lashed out at the lift quaggoths, and was attacked by them in return. Asha screamed in horror as the quaggoth claws rent the spider's shiny black carapace.
The other spider scuttled across the ledge and ended up face-to-face with the startled drow Ksenia had been fighting. The poor guard didn't stand a chance. He got a faceful of pincers, and dropped in a heap.
The guards exiting the main hall saw the spiders fighting quaggoth, saw Asha screaming, and wisely decided to take the fight elsewhere. They ran for the guard tower.
The drow guards and elite warriors that had been meditating continued to get ready, hastily pulling on armour and grabbing weapons. Four more quaggoth joined the fray on the ledge - two had been in the hanging towers, cleaning, and two entered from the main hall. Seeing their companions under attack, they ran to attack the spiders. Within moments one of the quaggoths was falling into the web below.
Jorlan was finally pulled into the fight as Asha demanded his help. He jogged over to join her, and happily attacked a quaggoth who was fighting a spider. This was turning into a delightful disaster, and Shoor and Ilvara hadn't even come out of their tower yet. He silently wished the slaves at the other end, good luck.
Hit
Fail. I know this is vs weapons, but we'll use it anyway.
Miss
Miss
Hit
Miss
Ront
Hit
Hit