The tiger squeezes through the door and around the doctor until he can move without restriction. He tries once more to grab Etward, but the man proves difficult to hold onto. He tries maul him in his jaws.
HP 83/83
AC 25 (+1 vs. traps), deny advantage, cold resistance 3
Fort +11, Ref +17, Will +12 (+1 vs. traps)
Hero Points: 1
Deviant backlash DC: 5
Effects:
"Surrender, professor. We don't want to have to kill you, but you aren't going to escape," Daehalya says, knocking him right back to the ground as she tries to determine what he will do next.
Critical Success You precisely discern the target's strategy, gaining a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the creature until the start of your next turn and a +2 circumstance bonus to your next saving throw against the creature before the start of your next turn.
Success You deduce the gist of the target's strategy; as critical success, except the circumstance bonus is only +1.
Failure You fail to discern the target's strategy and gain no benefit.
Critical Failure You misinterpret the target's strategy and take a –1 circumstance penalty to AC against the creature until the start of your next turn, and a –1 circumstance penalty to your next saving throw against the creature before the start of your next turn.
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Nicky advances upon Ritalson. Rapier out.
All these machinations. For what? Power that is only gained at the hands of a puppetmaster?
You attempted to pull OUR strings. You pretended to be a friend and patron and yet tried to puppetmaster US?!
I think you resorted to eating brains and familicide? Like W-T-F?!
When did going to far not enter into your head?
Nicky goes for the plan of injuring Ritalson to incapacitation and then maybe healing him from death's door unless he hears a full throated surrender.
* - move
**- Das -
*** - manipulate. Pull out healing potion.
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Onye has a difficult time getting a decent hold on the slippery doctor, but he forces the man inot melee combat, which he doesn't seem to favor in the slightest. Nicky's blade doesn't find purchase as Ritalson steps back, only to sneer at Daehalya's mention of surrender.
Daehalya trips Ritalson again as he can't seem to stay on his feet very well. He rolls to the side missing her staff before it is able to crack his ribs. She is unable to discern his next strategy.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Etward Ritalson
Onye
Nicholo
➤ Alvarius
Daehalya
Alvarius taps into his evocation powers, hurling lightning and following it up with a bolt of force to lay Etward low.
"I'm going to need some convincing to let this guy live..."
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Etward’s breath comes sharp and ragged as he sprawls across the frost-slick stone, one side of his coat already darkening with blood. Alvarius' spells have left him twisted, one leg refusing to answer cleanly, his composure cracked for the first time.
The firelight dances wildly across his face—no longer calm, no longer measured.
Now furious. “Do you have any idea” he snarls, voice breaking as he forces himself up onto one elbow, “what you are interrupting?”
A tentacle lashes nearby, scattering debris, but he ignores it. His gloved hand fumbles into his satchel, coming up with a tightly rolled scroll, its edges blackened as though it remembers being burned.
He clutches it too hard.
Blood smears across the parchment.
“Ungrateful... specimens,” he spits blood, the word specimens twisted with venom now, all pretense of civility gone. “I offered you purpose. Context. Meaning beyond your small, wandering lives”
The scroll snaps open with a violent flick of his wrist.
His other hand trembles as he forces the sigil into existence, fingers shaking not from weakness—but from barely contained rage.
“...and you choose chaos.”
The word of power tears out of him, less spoken than forced into the world.
The chamber answers instantly.
The shadows convulse.
From every crack, every seam in the ruined floor, black tentacles surge upward in a writhing explosion of slick, grasping mass. They slam against stone, coil around pillars, lash outward in all directions—indiscriminate, violent, hungry.
One slams down inches from Daehalya, cracking the frost beneath it.
Another coils toward Nickolo, snapping like a striking viper.
A third wraps briefly around one of the doppelgangers deceased body, squeezing before releasing it, as if even the spell must decide what belongs and what does not.
Etward collapses back onto the stone, propped on one arm, chest heaving as the magic takes hold around him.
Firelight flickers in his eyes.
“Fine,” he breathes, a thin, bitter smile cutting through the pain. “We’ll do this the difficult way.”
Behind him, Lichgate hums louder.
And the tentacles tighten their grip on the room.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Etward Ritalson
➤ Onye
➤ Nicholo
➤ Alvarius
➤ Daehalya
The giant tiger dances around the tentacles trying to take hold of him. He moves out of the writhing chaos before turning his attention back to Etward. With a roar, he lunges for the doctor's neck with his jaws and tries to pull the man under him with his foreclaws.
HP 83/83
AC 25 (+1 vs. traps), deny advantage, cold resistance 3
Fort +11, Ref +17, Will +12 (+1 vs. traps)
Hero Points: 1
Deviant backlash DC: 5
Effects:
"Purpose? Findeladlara gives me all the meaning I need, pointing the way. She is my north star, lighting the path. You offered us a way, but any path lined with death only leads to more death. Your offering is rejected!"
Seeing their former mentor remains prone and grappled, she tries her best to end the threat as quickly as possible!
Critical Success You precisely discern the target's strategy, gaining a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the creature until the start of your next turn and a +2 circumstance bonus to your next saving throw against the creature before the start of your next turn.
Success You deduce the gist of the target's strategy; as critical success, except the circumstance bonus is only +1.
Failure You fail to discern the target's strategy and gain no benefit.
Critical Failure You misinterpret the target's strategy and take a –1 circumstance penalty to AC against the creature until the start of your next turn, and a –1 circumstance penalty to your next saving throw against the creature before the start of your next turn.