"I will help. They are abominations." Penelope agrees with Svetlana on the undead. She would do it now, but the children are more important.
Seeing Jeva standing apart, the paladin makes a point to say loudly enough for all the kids to hear. "Thank you Jeva. We would never have made it to them in time without your help."
The halfling shrugs, "Think I've seen maybe a dozen but I'm sure there is way more. And yeah, that's way too tall for me."
Taking a slow breath, "I can show you the chains we climbed. Right next to where Jurin got grabbed." Looking down the hall, "Those kobolds might be getting others to attack us."
Jeva has been staring silently at the halfling and shakes her head before refocusing on Penelope, clearly confused. The halfling presses harder into his side, "Down the hall, though the doors. Only one way from there, that's the chains."
Kimi speaks up having caught on to what is being talked about, "But there's a cave and that's where Jurin got grabbed."
(+2 in dim or dark)
(+1 for traps)
On it! Sanguine and headless of danger, Svetlana rushes into the direction, almost provoking things into attacking her.
"Something else is here...things... sounds like predators eating, but they just stopped." Elowen whispers.
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Huh? Means they hear us so
In an eerie yet deadly voice, Svetlana shouts a quite intimidating challenge as she progresses, her right claw scratching along the wall making a pretty unpleseant noise to accompany it.
The trio of child stare with wide eyes and Jeva watches with awe as Svetlana makes herself into something terrifying and territorial. The halfling lets out a quiet, Damn."
(+2 in dim or dark)
(+1 for traps)
Running into the hall at Svetlana are two short and broad figures. Their skin is stretched too tight. Both have fresh blood on their hands and covering their faces. Both lunge at Svetlana and sink their broken teeth into her flesh.
Svetlana stagges under the assault, but is seeming not paralyzed!
Swift action get a gore
Smert Kabrirem She snarls in Abyssal
Death to Kabriri, demon lord of ghouls, the grammer mistake is intended, as well as writing in latin alphabet latters, which in my headcanon symbolizes having a massively angry accent, she is incredibly pissed.
I approve of thy sentiment, even though thy grammar could use some improvement. Only she hears, perhaps, a voice.
Full attack
Biting a ghoul is perhaps not the smartest thing ever, but Svetlana is not neccesarily a smart person. She is however a very very angry one, visions of ghouls eating children straight in her inner eye.
Temper thy fury, let thy allies strike as well the voice speaks again in her mind, Svetlana obediently takes a 5 feet step back.
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After a moment's pause, worried just for a second about Svetlana's rage, the paladin follows, pulling her bowstring back and letting loose an arrow at the nearest creature.
As she sees the creatures up close, something in her reading and stories from her mentor skims in her head. Can she grab it and pull it to the surface.
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Swinging her head down to yank the ghoul off of her arm with her horn only to lunge forward and bite its throat. Jerking her head back with a mouth full of leathery meat. That ghoul hits the ground with a loud thump. Claws dig into the other ones grey chest. The arrow strikes the wall near the abominations head.
Вы, клоуны, на вкус как дерьмо.
Svetlana states in Abyssal as she spits the ghoul parts into the other ghoul.
You clowns taste like s&*!
Now, if these brain addled hungry ex dwarfs had any sense of humor, they would ask why you would know how s!+! tastes like.
She once more hears the voice, now chuckling a bit.
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Elowen takes a few steps down the hall, hurling a javelin at the remaining ghoul, but is unable to come anywhere near her target in the chaos.
Jenkin runs back down the hall after Svetlana, taking up a potentially flanking position on the other side of the hallway from her.
Turning toward the lumberjack and lunging at him with its mouth streched open to wide, bits of flesh falling out as it moves. But a few rotting teeth break on the armor instead. Leaving a foul smell in the black and red streak left behind. It crouches down and growls.
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Jenkin growls back, his guttural disgust at what the group is facing here making up for the monster's supernatural hate, and does his best to bury both axes in its skull.
With Jenkin in a perfect flanking position, Svetlana five foot steps, drops her buckler and rakes teh ghouls back with claws and gore, opting to only bit as a last resort
Likely scoring 2 solid hits with her claws, even though her gore goes wide.
Even as her first arrow flies, before it even zips past the ghoul's cheek, Penelope reaches back to Kimi to grab another arrow, then another.
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In rapid succession axe, claws, and arrows rip though the ghoul. Claws slice through its emaciated belly, the axe bisects its head and one arrow goes though its mouth while the other hits where its heart would be.
Straight down the hall there the sound of claws scratching the floor and hissing. Chains rattle are there are wordless growls. And a low whistle of awe from the halfling.
Quick, lets see if we can save what they are preying upon!
Svetlana, still horned, says as she infuses herself with positive energy
Svetlana the room you look into, that the ghouls came out of is not you the children should see. There is a half eaten green kobold on one of the stone slabs, strapped down. Empty cages along the back wall.
Down the hall, beyond the open doors are stone pews. THe halfling points to the open doors, "That room. There is another door, leads to the chains and that tunnel."
Kimi cuts in quickly, putting a hand on Penelope's shoulder, "The tunnels are where Jurin got grabbed. Can't just leave him."
"We will not." Penelope tells the girl with firm resolve, as she pulls the arrows out of the dead ghoul.
Svetlana sees the chewed up Kobold with evident relief, then turns on her feet and heads back towards the group
They were munching on a Kobold, not one of the kids, lets get Jurin while my magic is going.
She falls in with penelope.
"Huh. You think the kobolds have pissed something bad off, too?" Jenkin says, headed through the doors. "I feel like there's something else going on here..."
"Probably, but if the ghouls are attacking the kobolds as well as us, it increases our chances." Elowen replies.
Save the kids first, murder the actual problem later.
Svetlana announces as she advances further
Interesting, should you not murder the problem first, so it cant threaten the kids? At least thats what I do when I seek to protect what I value from someone the voice in her head says
Not unreasonable, but too many different factions in play. Ghouls, Kobolds, possibly oozes, non intelligent undead. Get the kids out of here and to safety, then slaughter the opposition at our leisure
Svetlana mentally answers
But cant the enemy just teleport right onto the kids when you are seeking too... oh right, yall cant teleport at will. She can almost sense the mental nod as she receives an answer
Huh, warfare between sides that have mass teleportation? How does that work? There arent really frontlines, no logistics, just massive violence at a moments notice? Probably results in a very paranoid, extremely violent and short term focused mindset.
Svetlana tries to wrap her head around an alien concept of war
There would be frontlines in a way, but informational. It is risky to teleport en mass into unknown locations, as such, scouts are at a premium, but also a risk since they could as well lead you to your doom. Then there is the question of how such scouts would communicate their information back... the voice answers, seemingly having a bit of an interest in military stratgy as well
Couldnt they just teleport back? Or does that reveal their location, because I guess teleportation can be traced, but like, on Golarion its to unfrequent for such capabilities to be economical?
Svetlana inquires back
Cheliax, Andoran, Irrisen and Mendev all employ teleportation prevention systems on sizeable scales, but only the Chelish have much teleportation of their own, so they dont prize the capability to detect teleportation targets that highly. Rahadoum and Razmir got some too, but like, Razmiran is a military joke more or less, Razmir just got a funny dead man switch. The Rahadoumi version works only against divine teleportation effects, making it rather cumbersome.But focus on the slaugher and salvation task at hand yes? It would be a massive waste if you die.
Jenkin's the room you enter has a church feel to it. Six stone prayer platforms with well-worn knee rests. You can smell smoke and hear the faint sound of metal being struck. It reminds you of walking past a blacksmiths forge, which feels very out of place.
Kimi stays behind Penelope and Mirka remains attacked to Sir Pounce who steps over the ghouls, quietly guiding the youth past them. The halfling runs after Savram when he notices the boy moving silently towards Jenkin's. Staring with a blank expression into the open doorway, "There's a well with chains that go down. And Jurin got pulled into the smoke."
Looking up at the lumberjack with eyes that have seen far to much for how small he is, "We getting Jurin?"
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Yes, into the smoke, we will get him, and I will svetlana the non existent daylight of whatever touched him. Just like I did with these s*@*ty ghouls.
Suddenly concious about linguistics and reputation, Svetlana seeks to establish the phrase "to svetlana someone" as "conduct brutal and disproportionate, but very much justified violence on someone who really deserves it."
(+2 in dim or dark)
(+1 for traps)
Moving though the church into a small space. A ten-foot-diameter pit occupies the center of this chamber. Directly over the pit a long chain feeds through complex pulley system before disappearing into the depths. Looking down into the pit there is a large cauldron near the top.
But it is the cave that that draws the eye and nose. The reek of acrid smoke drifts out towards you all. There is a faint and hazy glow deeper in the cave. The banging noise calls to mind the cacophony of a forge.
Svetlana heals herself again as she approaches the pit. She then call upon her fanglord powers to cast jump on herself.
Staring into the smoking, sweltering cave, Elowen's face takes on a grim, resolute expression. Uttering an incantation, she holds a piece of bark in her hand that begins to spark, smolder, and is quickly consumed. The odor of char clears as tiny seedlings sprout from her arms, face, and every other inch of her body, to be replaced just as quickly by an overgrown, mossy bark.
The smoke and cave worries the paladin so she turns to the girl, kneeling in front to her. "What is in there could be many things, so I need someone to stay out here with the others. To protect them, and lead them out if we need you to." she does not state what that need would be. She doesn't want to give it more power than it needs.
After a moment's pause, she pulls her only other weapon. Her longsword, and presses it into the girl's hands, taking her quiver in return. She gives a firm smile, a quick hug, then turns and hurries after Svetlana with an arrow drawn.
Sir pounce spreads some reassuring tail pats around the kids and the halfling, but stays behind got protect the kids.
The witch comes forward with her cockroach to the edge of well. ”Sneak down there and take a look. Let me know if you see enemies and/or a child. Is the enemy watching the well? Try to count them so when you come back up you can show us how many. Be careful.”
The cockroach’s faultless traction lets it scuttle easy down the well’s walls.
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Kimi looks like she wants to argue but when she gets the sword in her hand there is a brief moment of a child getting something they have wanted for a very long time. It fades quiets and she nods, "Please get Jurin."
Savram moves back to Sir Pounce who still have Mirka clinging to him. Kimi stands ready with her sword raise but lowers it with some quiet words from the halfling. Jeva follows along silently.
Odelai closes her eyes and her brow furrows as she attempts to decipher the impressions she is receiving from her familiar. ”There is smoke… and heat. The smoke gets thicker further in. There’s a banging sound.” She taps a finger three times on the lip of the well. ”The child… lives. But nearby him is something evil… and hot.” She opens her eyes, ”I can’t be sure but I don’t think an ambush awaits us at the bottom of the well.”
The witch pulls a fine rope from her backpack, ties it off to the cross-piece above the well, then rappels down into the darkness.
Svetalana endows herself with divine favor, and then acrobatically jumps down the pit, athletically jumping from one side to the other, never truely falling, in a pretty impressive display of fairly aestethic acrobatics.
Hold out Jurin, I am coming.
Show your strength hammerer, lets dance. She speaks eerily into the hammering darkness as she reaches the bottom.
"See, this is why I liked my leather armor, it breathed better. Now I'm going to get all sweaty..." Jenkin grumbles, slinging his axes over his back, taking hold of the chain and clambering down into the pit.
Penelope manages a smile at Jenkin's levity but doesn't respond. The danger and potential of more is simply too much for her at the moment, but she appreciates his attempt.
After the others start their descent, Penelope reluctantly slings her bow and follows with careful grace.
As soon as Zippe returns from investigating the caverns , Odelai sends the cockroach down the well. In moments, it practically races back out. Odelai confers with the creature in a strange language of hisses, clicks, and eyebrow movements.
She nods to the little creature as it flies into her hair. "The well is a midden. It smells so rank, even Zippe was repulsed. Also there are lizard-like creatures waiting for us to come down. Given the stink, they might be troglodytes, but that is just speculation. If anyone has alchemist's fire, I'd suggest throwing it down the pit to discourage those monsters from coming up here while we rescue the child."
"Oh... guess I got confused... he says, swinging himself back off of the chain. "So... not down into the ambush, yeah, got it. If we don't have stuff to drop on them, maybe we can just... block it off?"
Svetlana tries to be stealthy, but forgets to not make threatening noises as she moves closer.
The growling coming from the huntress echos in the cave but is largely drowned out by the banging. There is a brief pause in the noise but it lasts a few seconds before resuming.
"We have risk them coming up." Penelope says, since the child is the most important. Without another word she follows Svetlana.
If they come to us with claws and fangs, by claws and fangs they shall perish
Anticipating hostilties, Svetlana recasts divine favor, leaving her with one spell slot for the day.
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"I resent your exclusiveness, Svetlana..." Jenkin says dryly as he once again slips both axes out from their harness.
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Fine She says with a grin
By our axes, claws, fangs, swords, arrows, hair, and other assortive elements of violence they shall perish.
Elowen simply holds her staff, ready for a fight.