In his rage, Stom doesn't register the eye beam of blindness and continues to focus on the enemy in front of him. He maneuvers to attack the creature in tandem with Lyra and swings away.
◆ Step
◆◆ Slam Down
The black eye beam blasts over Stom's head to target Violant, slamming into her and causing her vision to go completely black and swimming with visions of destruction, burning forests and a feeling of raw malevolence.
Unperturbed, Stom swings his axe, connecting viciously with the half dragon, laying its back open, wounding it grievously, while he tries to overpower the creature and knock it down, it flares its wing and tail to steady itself before growling at Stom.
With enough fire built it, it breaths a huge gout of fire, enveloping, Lyra, Doxie, Violant, Oppa and Wilbur(warpig).
Before it then whirls about to bite Stom.
Round 2 - A Half-dragon-sized miscommunication
Active Effects: Elemental Zone (+2 Dam w/ Electricity & Bludgeoning)
Stom ☘️ - 72 damage
Racherak(half-dragon) - 59 damage
Violant ☘️ -
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ -
Lyra / Wilbur ☘️ ☘️ - 22 damage / Shield: 9 damage
Samael ☘️ -
Black Dragon Pillar -
Samael ◇ continues juggling the cards, ◆ strides to flank Racherak, and
Samael will
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Electricity sparks meaninglessly in the air.
Lyra taking quite the hit of fire damage, lifts her glowing shield and channels Saranrae's holy light upon the party.
""Klllarkisha Sarenrae brisshhraka liikk"
Doxie and Oppa are blasted by the fire breath.
Oppa wary of more attacks, raises his shield before directing Doxie to tear into the half-dragon.
Lyra nearly goes down, her faith in Saranrae allows her to barely keep standing, she provides a modicum of healing to the whole group, knitting close small wounds and soothing burns.
Samael is able to get into flanking, and delivers two vicious kidney shots with his sharp playing cards, which actually causes the dragon to collapse, unconscious and bleeding out.
The Black Pillar is still emitting red smoke, and malevolent black energy is seeping from the structure, its eyes once again crackle with black lightning before it blasts someone with another blinding eye beam.
The black energy beam blasts Oppa, potentially blinding the Gnome.
Oppa is just barely able to get his shield and interpose, the leaves Oppa's wooden shield smoking and burnt from the energy but Oppa can still see.
Round 3 - A Half-dragon-sized miscommunication
Active Effects: Elemental Zone (+2 Dam w/ Electricity & Bludgeoning)
Stom ☘️ - 59 damage
Racherak(half-dragon) - 135 damage - Dying 1 unconscious
Violant ☘️ -
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ - 20 damage
Lyra / Wilbur ☘️ ☘️ - 42 damage / Shield: 9 damage | Wilbur dying1
Samael ☘️ -
Black Dragon Pillar -
This time, Stom does notice the eye beam from the pillar and calls out to the group. In his mind, the best way to deal with this to regroup and take the half-dragon creature with them. He grabs the half-dragon around the neck by his shirt or armor and starts the group's retreat.
"Away from the pillar! Into the trees!"
◆ Grapple Racherak
◆ Stride
◆ Stride
Stom scoops up the unconscious half-dragon and runs to the tree line and into the cover of the jungle.
Round 3 - A Half-dragon-sized miscommunication
Active Effects: Elemental Zone (+2 Dam w/ Electricity & Bludgeoning)
Stom ☘️ - 59 damage[/b]
Racherak(half-dragon) - 135 damage - Dying 1 unconscious
Violant ☘️ - 3 damage, Blind 1 hour
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ - 20 damage
Lyra / Wilbur - 42 damage / Shield: 9 damage | Wilbur 12 hp Wounded 1
Samael ☘️ -
Black Dragon Pillar -
Samael will take a step closer to the pillar and
Samael attempts to disable the magical runes powering the pillar however he struggles to get through the black sticky tar and pitch that covers the outside though he feels like it would be possible to disable the pillar in such a way.
Lyra moves up next to Samael and tries to help deactivate the pillar. "what if we just knock it down?" She tries with all her might to push the tower over, hoping it breaks as it hits the ground.
Shockingly, Lyra throws her shoulder into the pillar and feels it give, gathering her strength she sets her feet, her muscles bulge as she strains to push the Pillar over. It slowly starts to tip before finally falling and slamming in a large puff of dust, a small burst of negative erupts from the Pillar as it splits and breaks into two pieces.
1) Tie up the prisoner.
2) Coerce the prisoner to tell us what it is, what it is doing here, and what is the pillar?
The Half-Dragon Charau-Ka lay on her side, bleeding but stable, muscles taut beneath her scaly hide. Her fanged mouth worked in silence as if chewing curses, eyes darting between her captors with defiance. It took time—words like threats, like fire, like reason and scorn—but eventually she spoke in draconic.
“You will all burn. If not by my hands, then by Dahak’s breath. That pillar was one of many. You think yourselves triumphant, but you’ve only angered the flame.” She sneered up at the group, the bindings digging into her arms. The blinding pillar’s ruined frame smoked behind them. "It doesn't matter, Balmazog will send her army out to find who destroyed this pillar, she will destroy you then she will build another Pillar, her army gathers and the very bones of Dahak guide her, she cannot fail,"
The fire in Stom's eyes fades as Lyra and Samael deal with the threat of the pillar. But a fire burns in Stom's mind as the half-dragon charua-ka brings up Dahak. The visions of towns being burned come racing into his mind.
"Don't speak of that evil dragon." Stom spits on the ground in disgust. "Who is Balmazog? Where is she?"
Spitting back at Stom, "Balmazog will be your ruin! She is Dahak's Chosen, and will herald the Sorrowmaker's return! I nearly killed you and I'm a fraction of Balmazog's strength! She has supped from the Marrow of Dahak, her power is limitless!"
"This is not a Dragon with anything redeemable. I say we just put it out of our misery".
Stom yells back at the half-dragon. "In my sleeping visison, I've seen the destruction of villages. If that is what you, Balmazog, and Dahak wan to achieve, I won't stand for it. If I die trying to stop that, so be it. More will rise up against that dragon."
Stom nods in agreement with Oppa. "Lyra, what say you? I know Sarenrae teaches the notion of giving evil-doers chance at repentance. Has this follower of Dahak done enough to seal their fate? Violant, Samael, what say you?"
While Lyra and the others consider, Stom takes a few deep breathes and thinks on what the half-dragon said. 'Malmazog. Dahak's chosen. Sorrowmaker. Marrow of Dahak. What does this mean?'
"I have nothing against putting someone like this, who refuses to excuse their evil, and, plans to continue it in the future, on the road to the Abyss."
Stom thinks back to what he knows about Dahak, he recognizes the name Sorrowmaker as another name used for Dahak, though the name Balmazog doesn't ring a bell, neither does the term Marrow of Dahak.
Though Stom does recognize the word marrow, could mean bone marrow.
"I have nothing against the destruction of evil that purely exists to destroy, and where no use can be extracted. Dahak is that kind of evil. They aren't Nin, they aren't Haagenti, they aren't Asmodeus, they aren't anyone with anything to offer. All they offer is burning everything down."
”He seems like he doesn’t not want to repent of his ways. Remaining steadfast in his follow of Dahak. My lady firesword teaches redemption but if they refuse so be it.”
She waves her hand towards Stom signaling to take care of this evil creature.
Stom nods grimly at the group. "So be it." He puts a boot down on the half-dragon to hold them in place and draws his greatsword. "Your life is forfeit." he says with bitterness in his voice. He does his best to make the half-dragon's as quick a possible.
"should we rest here for the night? I can treat wounds and we can catch our breath."
After dispatching the half-dragon, Stom finds wood for a pyre to burn the body, using that fire to consume the pillar as well. "Don't want this thing coming back."
He agrees with Lyra. "Let's rest here and tend to our wounds. Violant, you need to sit and rest. I believe that your blindness is only temporary. Let's just make camp a ways from here. I'd rather like to forget that pillar."
The next morning, Stom makes a suggestion as the group readies themselves for the day. "I assume that the blindness effect is caused by more of these pillars. If we travel the boundary that the Ekujae told us about, I think we'll find another pillar to topple."
moving away from the pillar but nearby enough that Renali is able to find your camp, your group recuperates after the tough fight with the Half-Dragon Charau-ka.
Thinking back, it was shocking how much influence the half-dragon ancestry had on the Charau-Ka, it barely resembled the others you had fought previously in the basement of Citadel Altieren.
Renali finds you, she reports that the lower area is clear. Rested for the night, your group heads East, following the invisible Barrier that renders the Ekujae Elves blind. You find little the next day except for more jungle, Renali reports back that the area to the North is clear as well.
As Stom predicted a few days back, you guys find another pillar. A sinister pall seems to hang over this area of the forest. Where jungle birds, frogs, and insects once sang in an deafening cacophony, there is now only a menacing silence. Ahead, an ominous pillar topped with an indigo carving of a dragon’s head looms in the middle of a tangled clearing. In the clearing are a number of frog-like creatures, a number of you recognize them as Grippli's, though there eyes glow with an indigo light and they seem to be wandering the area aimlessly.
"If this pillar is similar to the other, I can try to sneak up to it or you could provide a distraction, and then I can attempt to disable it."
"WE can always just knock it down again too!" she says as she cracks her knuckles. "But, lets try and see if we can reason with the frogs first, they seem a bit off, and arent acting like the Charau-Ka from the other day."
Stom is quite happy that his hunch proved to be correct. "Ha! Just like I said. These pillars are the cause of the Ekujae's problems. Looks like we might need to tear more down."
Along with Lyra, Stom studies the pillar, looking for connections to Dahak.
Stom and Lyra take in the Indigo Pillar, it is fashioned identical the Black Dragon Pillar you guys destroyed a few days ago, though this likely embodies some other aspect of magic than blinding, like the Black Pillar did.
Violant, however, tries to recall knowledge on everything else in the area. Namely, the humanoids.
Violant thinks back to what she knows of Grippli's or as they refer to themselves, Tripkee's.
Tripkees are froglike humanoids whose spirit often exceeds their stature.
Tripkees are a shy and cautious people who generally seek to avoid being drawn into the affairs of others. Despite their cautious outlook and small stature, adventurous tripkees still take bold and noble action when the situation demands it.
Tripkees are reclusive treetop survivalists who harvest their homes' bounty, utilizing their canopy homes as natural fortifications against the threats posed by larger predators. Their reliance on cunning and simple tools has led to tripkees often being mischaracterized as rudimentary, though this does poor justice to their skill in the cultivation of hidden orchards and camouflaged causeways tucked away in treetop nations. Tripkees are most likely to emerge from their forest homes to trade, explore, and combat threats that would despoil the world.
Oppa lays a hand on Doxie. "Hold girl. Let's see what happens".
Oppa Casts "Read Aura" to see if anyting pings.
Violant relays what she knows to the rest of the group, being her usual self and flip-flopping betwween "Grippli" and "Tripkee" throughout the explanation.
let’s go take care of these frogs! Maybe they will seek redemption by Lady Firesword’s light.”
Lyra moves up to the pillar and the group of frog creature, urging her companions to follow suit. Speaking out in common she waves a greeting ”by her blessed light!” she tries to get as close to the pillar as possible.
Lyra bursts out of the cover of the trees and brush, the 4 Grippli's, eyes glowing with an indigo light all turn toward her, eerily at the same time.
The Indigo Dragon Pillar eyes begin emitting an indigo smoke.
The Indigo Pillar eyes flash with an incandescent indigo beam targeting Lyra before she even finish her sentence.
Round 1 - Is Dahak the Rainbow Dragon?
Indigo Dragon Pillar -
Samael ☘️ -
Violant ☘️ -
Stom ☘️ -
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ -
Grippli Archer 1
Grippli Archer 2
Lyra / Wilbur ☘️ -
Grippli Archer 2
Grippli Greanspeaker
◆◆◆ Samael will race past the Tripkees, making sure to stay out of melee range of them, to get behind the pillar, ready to disable it.
"Cover me!" he shouts.
◆◆ CAST: Exploding Earth @ #1
Throw ball of mud
Bludgeoning Damage.
Splash Bludgeoning Damage
Exploding Earth
◆Stride
"Friendly aren't they girl! I know you love Frog Legs... Get ready".
Seeing Samael rush over to disable the pillar, Stom does his best to support and keep the tripkees away from the sneaky rogue. "Eyes on me, frogs!"
◆◆ Sudden Charge
◆ Strike
Violant sighs, points at the pillar desparately as she tries to recognize what it's doing.
Violant isn't sure exactly what kind of magic the Pillar is creating, could be trying to Posses the creatures, could be trying to dominate, potentially could be a killing beam that then reanimates the creatures dead body.
Either way, Violant realizes that the creatures are being controlled, and possibly could do more. She frantically points at the pillar, trying to say the pillar first! These might be innocents!
She sees blue, and common logic dictates to throw fire at the problem. So, as she's wanton to do, she throws fire at the problem, only managing to accidentally catch one gripli.
Samael races ahead getting to the pillar, ready to try and disable it while Stom, Oppa and Violant resort to violence.
Stom charges forward and cuts the unsuspecting, likely dominated Grippli grievously. His second attack is unable to connect as the creature reacts to being attack and dodges.
Oppa throws a ball of mud that critically explodes upon hitting, showering the nearby Grippli's in stinging mud.
it fails from the force of the mud ball and falls over prone.
Violant launches a fireball at the Pillar, it explodes and seems to absorb into the pillar, it hurts the nearby Grippli but the Pillar seems charged by the fire damage.
It fails against the fireball, burning slightly.
The two archers up front draw their shortbows, step away from Stom and fire an arrow each at him.
Both arrows bounce harmlessly off the Dwarf.
Round 1 - Is Dahak the Rainbow Dragon?
Indigo Dragon Pillar - Charged,
Samael ☘️ -
Violant ☘️ -
Stom ☘️ -
Oppa / Doxie ☘️ -
Grippli Archer 1 - 23 damage
Grippli Archer 2 - 4 damage
Lyra / Wilbur ☘️ -
Grippli Archer 3 - 13 damage
Grippli Greanspeaker - 26 damage, prone