Sajan scrambles up the wall of the pit, almost at the top! Dawn and Nixoret continue their barrage of spells, with Nixoret's electricity continuing to find greater success, but the gremlins keep firing back to drive you away from their warren, pelting Bruit with arrows, and somehow ricocheting an arrow off a tree trunk right into Kalla's neck!
Nixoret
Sajan -6, Immune to Aura
Dawn -3
Pugwampi (Yellow) - Taking Cover
Blue Meanie (Yellow) -4 (Vengeful towards Nix), Taking Cover
Pugwampi (Blue) -2, Taking Cover
Blue Meanie (Red) -1, Vengeful towards Ursula, Taking Cover, Need to Reload
Kalla - Dying 2, Prone, Disarmed, Unlucky!
Pugwampi (Red) -15,
Laszlo - Courageous, Unlucky (Bruit -8, unlucky)
Ursula - Courageous, Unlucky
Hearing Kalla's gurgling cry as she goes down, Dawn swears to the spirits as she hustles back down the path. She reaches out with her magic to tend to the fallen bard.
"Well, no sense in staying here," Ursula says as she strides across the uneven terrain to the wall. She attempts to vault over and feels the wood give way underneath her boot. Luckily she recovers in time to try again, getting into the thick of things with the treacherous cretins.
"I have just changed, so please be kind and avoid anything that will stain," Ursula suggests to the strange fey creatures.
Sajan continues making his way out of the pit before unleashing a flurry of blows at the blue meanie cowering behind the barricade.
Nixoret press his heels in to the ground to store energy and springs forward flinging himself across the gap in the ground.
For a split second, Nix hangs in the air, unsure if will cover the distance but blessedly his feet land in the loamy soil and he is able to arrest his momentum by awkwardly swinging his hatchet at the red Pugwampi directly in front of him
[ooc] strike
After tripping for the third time attempting to cross the pitted ground, Laszlo grumbles to himself, "Hmm, these walls are a pain, but if they can't see us, the can't hurt us." Taking out a vial, he adulterates it with a tarry substance and lobs it into the center of the fortifications.
"Ahhhhhh!" The fey scream in unison as Ursula and Sajan make it into their camp, Sajan's kick leaving one fey ragdoll still on the ground.
"Ahhhhhhhh!" They scream again as darkness and smoke fill the clearing. They loose arrows and swipe with swords at those who have intruded, but whether by smoke, steel or their lack of strength, they barely leave so much as a scratch!
Nixoret - Immune to Unluck
Sajan -6, Immune to Unluck
Dawn -3
Pugwampi (Yellow) - Taking Cover
Blue Meanie (Yellow) -4 (Vengeful towards Nix), Taking Cover
Pugwampi (Blue) -2
Blue Meanie (Red) -1, Vengeful towards Ursula, Need to Reload
Kalla - 11, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed, Unlucky!
Pugwampi (Red) -15,
Laszlo - Courageous, Unlucky (Bruit -8, unlucky)
Ursula -2 Courageous, Unlucky
Ursula manages to direct the stabbing sword coming out of the smoke to avoid ruining her clothing with some exertion.
Striking back with a flaming blade swipes little but air as she parts the smoke. Ursula follows up with one last attempt to strike, conjuring a shield to protect herself in the same moment!
Again the world comes rushing back, a race, a splash, a shocking uprightness that is covered in the smell of pine and sunlight.
"Thanks... Dawn" she manages to croak and as she rolls over and looks at the battle. She thinks, no reason to get up, as she raises her hand and pelts the nearest bad guy in a trio of magical orbs.
Kalla's force bolts once again find their mark and leave another fey broken on the ground, but unluckily Ursula isn't able to do much more than drive her foe deeper into the smoke...
Nixoret - Immune to Unluck
Sajan -6, Immune to Unluck
Dawn -3, Out of Aura
Pugwampi (Yellow) - Taking Cover
Pugwampi (Blue) -2
Blue Meanie (Red) -1, Vengeful towards Ursula, Need to Reload
Kalla - 11, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed, Out of Aura for now
Pugwampi (Red) -15,
Laszlo - Unlucky (Bruit -8, Out of Aura)
Ursula -2, Unlucky, Shield
Dawn moves up next to Kalla and fires a beam of divine power at the nearest cur.
Laszlo scowls at his own smoke cloud. It did what I wanted it too, but now it's a problem. I need something to disperse these clouds once I'm done with them. With a heave he begins pulling himself over the wall.
Failing to get over, he gives it another try.
Finally getting to the other side, he stumbles into the smoke cloud to try and assist Ursula.
Nixoret peeks his mirror over the barricade and a copy of himself appears sandwiching the yellow Pugwampi between Laszlo and himself. Nix seizes on the momentary surprise of the fey by laying into it with a series of practiced swipes from his hatchet
Dawn badly scorches the cowering pugwampi, and Nixoret's reflection drives all the spirit out of them - sending both of the gremlins toppling to the ground with quick chops of his hatchet!
The last fey drops its sword and flings itself to the ground. "I give up! I give up! Don't kill meeeeeeee!!"
With the last fey surrendering, Dawn calls to the spirits to heal the group.
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Waving one hand to try to disperse the smoke quicker, he reaches down grabs the fey being by the shoulder, dragging it back to its feet. "Do not worry, we do not kill prisoners. You will have to answer some questions though."
Squinting through the smoke, he sees a familiar form approaching through the magical garden Dawn has summoned. "There is Kalla, she will- KALLA! What have you done to yourself?!" Pushing the fae back toward Ursula for her to deal with, he begins stalking toward his party member with a scolding tone. "No! Do not pull the arrow out yet, that is how you bleed out quickly. You are supposed to be dodging these, or at least taking them on the armored parts, tch. The neck, really? Sit down right there while I take care of this."
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"Sharlott!"
"Yes miss?"
"Anyone severely hurt?"
"Um, Miss Kalla went down but Miss Dawn and Mr. Laszlo are helping her..."
"Very well. I will investigate this area. Please pass on a ration of cacao bar to her to console her for being injured."
The skittish young maid steps up next to Kalla, offering her what looks like a hardened chunk of dark brown butter. "Um, Miss Ursula is very, very sorry you were hurt. I hope you'll feel better with this. Miss Ursula thinks its too bitter on its own, so she normally has me shave flakes into her evening milk."
Ursula, not privy to her maid's gossip, continues to look for the source of the area's trouble and what drew the fey creatures here. Mostly, she simply wants to be seen as having been useful for this encounter, as her thoughts drift briefly.
"UH HUH!" the surviving fey not-quite shouts.
While he waits for Laszlo's questions , Ursula and Sajan find some other items of interest. Shallowly buried together in a small cache, they find a a bronze chalice , a truly hideous, but well made, statuette of a gremlin , a pile of acorn leavings, and a small heap of coins - a few copper pennies and silver weights common to Absalom, as well as ban liang coinage of brass and silver that is less commonly seen even in the Jewel of the Inner Sea.
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Kalla is not used to be fawned over by so many concerned. It blossoms a startled but happy little smile. "I just kind of attract the ire of our enemies it seems, don't it." she manages, once the arrow is out and the bite of the bitter but delicious brown stuff goes down. "Thanks, Laz, Dawn, Shar, and..." the bard finally notices the small blue fey clutched by Laz. "Have you adopted this little guy here? Hello." she holds out her hand to shake his. "Want to tell us, what in the hells you were doing all this for?"
"Uhhhh..." the gremlin tugs down his ears in thought. "Well, we were in a forest. Then, there were yummy acorns. First just one acorn, then another, then another, then another, then another, then... Do you need to know how many acorns? We don't see a tree for them, but we followed the path here to where that beautiful statue was, and as long as we stay here, more acorns!"
"You have been quite useful, Sajan. I would have overlooked much of this without you," Ursula comments to the monk as they look over the gathered valuables. Listening in the background to the loud gremlin, Ursula twists a lock of her blonde curls between a finger, letting it snap back into place. "Something deliberately brought them here, and their presence caused more of the maze to act errantly."
Ursula considers the clues they had found. The folded paper animals, the flute and rice cakes, now the ban liang - it doesn't take a scholar to determine the connection to Tian Xia culture, but does it paint a picture yet of the identity of the culprits...?
"Ya, looks like the acorns are going stop, little bit. I got a sack here" Kalla rummages in her pack then hands it to the fey "Gather up what you can of the nummy-corns then head back where you came from, okay?" she gazes sternly over her glasses to make her point.
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"Yup! Yup! You got it!" the gremlin nods so fast his ears get out of sync with his body. Not seeming overly troubled by the fate of his friends he gives their bodies a friendly wave goodbye and scampers away.
This part of the Maze remains tangled and overgrown, but starts to repair itself, even filling in the pits as the barricades are torn down and the gremlins chased off.