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Remind me to have Taejin ask Silas in-character what that flarking spell is so that he can start saying "stupid creepy death magic" as some kind of catchphrase.
As a matter of curiosity, what's 1,920 feet back the way we came because it looks like that's about how far away I'm going to end up. You have no idea how much I wish Run was a combat feet so that I'd end up CC'd for 12 rounds and not 16. Still, right now I'm 240 feet away and thus out of range of remove fear if anyone even did have it prepped. I have literally no way of returning to this fight for the next 16 rounds, because after I sprint for 8 rounds I have to turn around and sprint BACK. A process which will take 8 rounds. Woohoo. Guess I'll see you guys in 2.5 weeks, realtime, as an approximate estimate. OR whenever you kill the satyrs and we move back into narrative time rather than tactical. Please don't make me find 16 ways to say "he ran this way" and just keep appending status updates on my magic-induced flight for like... the rest of the spell's duration. I'll be looking up Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, contemporary Egyptian, and Chinese swears so that Taejin can turn the air blue on his 8-round run back to the party. -Smash cut to Tien looking man sprinting full throttle along the river and screaming incoherently in multiple languages.-
You certainly do enjoy your fear spells, don't you? XD
Taejin moves with precision and grace, leaping from the ground to bring his feet to rest against a nearby tree trunk before springing off of the plant and targeting a strong kick at the satyr's leg joint. He flows into a short series of precise blows, each aimed to cause a muscle group to stiffen or a joint to lock in place for a moment, making the satyr a softer target when it managed to gathers its wits about it.
Taejin will rush forward with speed he wasn't aware he had, aiming to strike the now-conscious satyr in the chest and drive the wind out of its lungs.
He will then attempt to follow up with a second strike as the satyr tries to inhale, aiming to keep the creature quiet long enough for Sindri to do his work.
Taejin will nod to the vanishing shadow gnome, wading through the undergrowth as quietly as he can to take up a position adjacent to his own target and, hopefully, hidden from the drinking satyr.
"We're not wandering around in the dark this time, so I'll back you up." Without further ado, Taejin will attempt to melt into the treeline and follow the brook forward, scouting out the area ahead.
Taejin will nod in agreement. "I'd prefer that the fairies stay out of the way, as from what I've seen so far they're just as likely to hinder us as the enemy and then get themselves hurt to boot." He then looks over to Silas. "What do you know about Satyrs, Silas? Am I going to be able to injure them without iron or should I focus on hindering them indirectly?"
Content to let Lucius speak, Taejin's eyes search the area for other fairies before alighting on what he assumes is the dryad. She's definitely a sight, but Taejin still isn't sure what to think of her.
"I won't hurt her if she doesn't hurt us first." The martial artist would release the fairy and roll his shoulders. "I've never met a dryad before. Sounds interesting."
Taejin will laugh at Lucius' antics, unable to form sentences thanks to mirth. It's not even how absurd he looks being that tiny but still proportioned like a normal human adult; it's his voice. It sounds ridiculous.
Taejin rolls his eyes at the fairy, an exasperated Tien word with no real translation serving perfectly well to express his displeasure. Switching back to the common tongue, he addressed the fairy. "You know, I'm half inclined to let him carry that out if you don't speak Common with us."
"I didn't catch it to kill it. Bodies don't talk, unless one of you has some really odd magic they haven't told me about." Examining the tiny fairy clutched in his hands, he spoke directly to it. "So. You're irritating, but I doubt your coordinated efforts can kill much more than a squirrel. There's something else here. Tell me, little fairy, have you heard strange music coming from deeper in the woods?"
With a clear, loud laugh, Taejin will interject; "I, on the other hand, find it hilarious."
He will readjust his grip on the fae, holding it so that its range of motion is far more limited.
Setting the one he'd held still for Sindri down roughly, Taejin moved over to Sig and attempted to snatch this fae, too, out of the air. "You just didn't think this through, did you, little ones?"
Taejin will take a deep breath, centering himself like the monks had taught him. These things are small. Should be pretty easy to snatch one out of the air. Immediately, he begins thinking of ways to do that, stepping out of the undergrowth and into a central position, the better to react.
When the fairies appear and reach out to grab Sindri's bow, Taejin slides into his familiar stance, but instead of jabbing at the faerie, he attempts to snag it by the wing.
Being hidden as he is, Taejin is unable to notify his allies of the fae creatures' position, but he does keep careful track, ready to spring to the aid of his allies the second such aid is required.
Taejin regards the four creatures pointing at Lucius and whispering, straining his ears but failing to hear. He does nothing for the moment, trusting his companions to be on guard, but should they make hostile movements towards Lucius he stood ready to intercept.
Taejin attempts to hide within the foliage as well, saying nothing as he does so.
Taejin regards the setup with mild amusement. Simple, but effective. "And we seem to have a couple options before us. We could dismantle these silently and proceed onward, or trigger the bells and hide to ambush whatever comes to investigate." As he talks, he looks around, attempting to double-check that the snares are not being actively watched.
Taejin nods, taking a position in the lead, slightly in front of Sindri. "Cold iron, eh? I'll be at a disadvantage here, then. No kind of cold iron on me. Could try and grab one if we need to. See how they like using magic when someone's got 'em pinned down." He grins at Sindri. "Now that we're not in the darkness or trying to sneak around, I'm not quite so shy about taking the lead." He shifts his stance slightly, drawing himself up and shifting his weight between his feet. "Listen close, guys. Anyone else hear that? Bells. That sound like faeries to you, Silas?"
Before leaving the town, Taejin will return to the stables and retrieve his pack mule, leading the animal along with the party. While he doesn't have a large enough tent for the entire party, he does have a tent stored in the animal's saddlebags, among other things. Taejin will examine the fruit trees, plucking only what he can eat then and there rather than risk the simple peril of not being able to eat what he gathers before it goes bad and having to dig rotten pears out of his bags. when Sindri voices his concerns, he shrugs. "I'll try to keep an eye out, but I'm not too concerned. Maybe I'm overestimating whatever happened to us, but I'm not terribly concerned with tiny fairies at the moment."
Taejin would nod in response to Lucius, having watched the shadow-gnome's tantrum with no small amount of surprise. "I'm not sure we're any sort of unit that needs a leader. I'd follow Sindri underground, but I've got no small amount of experience with ruins and languages. Similarly, I'd defer to Silas for anything magical, seeing as I know almost nothing about it. Why must there be a leader right now, or at all?" His piece said, he would await the answer to his earlier question of the wizard before making his way into town, to follow the Svirfneblin's advice and purchase an Ioun torch, the floating stone being much more efficient than torches but previously out of his price range. "I'll meet you all back in the middle of town tomorrow, where we joined together before leaving to hunt the goblins. I'll try to find Sindri myself and let him know, and we can go over our supplies as a team and see what's lacking."
The brawler stretches and nods in agreement. "That sounds like something we could stand to investigate. Do you have something we could contain these blood samples in? Perhaps something more sturdy than the average vial, since field travel invites all kinds of unplanned violence and I'd rather not have some highwayman get lucky and shatter the blood sample when we're halfway home."
"I feel... lighter, if that makes sense. Sometimes it's like everyone's moving a little slower."
All set here :D
Hideaki Taejin experiences a similar revelation to Sigfried, his body feeling lighter and more responsive than before on the journey home, and his spirit feeling bolstered by something... more. The journey passes quickly and uneventfully, the most action that any of them sees taking place with Taejin's daily shadowboxing session, which he performs after packing up camp and before the party begins travel once more, and the group arrives in Gumlaut. The brawler comports himself with simple silence throughout the meeting with the mayor. When he leaves, the brawler regards the wizard cautiously. Before he speaks, he'll examine the man before him, wondering what his motives are, and he'll feel that strange infusion of insight sharpen his observations as though responding to his desires, but the wizard proves inscrutable even with that assistance.
At a loss for Ris'jae's motivations, Taejin will simply take the direct route; "Not to be rude, but why? It's fairly easy to guess what the problem was, and how it would've been dealt with. What could we have seen that would pique the curiosity of a man whose presence makes this small town's leadership quake in fear?"
Taejin will shift behind the Bugbear, attempting to take advantage of its prone state and strike a pair of pressure points. "Get ready to hit him when he stands up!"
At home in the shuffle of melee combat, Taejin takes advantage of the opening that the larger goblinoid leaves in its guard, attempting to sweep its legs out from under it, hopefully upsetting the shoulder barge it attempts on his own person.
Disregarding the attempts of the three goblins to injure him, Taejin will attempt to strike the bugbear as it moves away, aiming for a pressure point to hinder its movements more.
Using a series of brief hand signals, he will attempt to convey his intent to circle around to the rest of the party.
He will then suit actions to words, disengaging from the two sword-wielding goblins to run in a semicircle around the pool, using his momentum and speed to take a running leap for the ground across the pool filled with hot rocks, aiming to land behind the bugbear. If successful, he would roll to continue his fluid motion, sliding to a stop, fists raised, immediately behind the creature.
Taejin will curse as the large goblinoid sends a wave of fire at his comrades. The lesser goblins are annoying, but spellcasting is a threat of another magnitude entirely. The brawler will disengage from the goblins, weaving to avoid taking blows if possible, and take up position behind the spellcaster, aiming a punch at the small of the creature's back.
Moving up behind Sigfried before the wyrwood engages, Taejin will rush the goblins opposite the gnome's archery target, aiming to menace them into dropping their bows while focusing his efforts on defense for the moment.
"Apologies, Sindri. I'd lead, but I can't see in the dark. I'm rather handy with mechanisms myself, but I'd rather someone who can actually see them lead. If we're not trying to surprise anyone, we can make a little light and I'll go ahead anyway."
Taejin shrugs as he makes his way to the stairs. "If you feel like it, then I'm not opposed. So long as we get paid for finishing our job, whatever else we find isn't of much consequence."
"Be careful, everyone, it's-" Taejin's warning is cut off by the sound of stone grinding against stone and the stairway flooding with water, and Silas' accompanying exclamation of pain. "Dangerously hot," the man finished lamely. Sindri seemed to have the trap well in hand, so he walks over to the captives. "Did you hear anything from upstairs that might indicate what's up there?"
Rather than waste time picking at Sindri's suggestion, Taejin will move to investigate the stream, trying to determine if it is a hot spring suitable for non-fire resistant humanoid usage. Might be worth noting the location for later; whatever that... thing had been, its bite had left the human feeling like rust was creeping up his muscles and joints. He was stiffer than usual, and the discomfort was wearing heavily on his nerves.
Seeing Silas take position as a guard, Taejin moves to check the bodies, looking out for arrows that Sindri could utilize in particular as replacements for the one the shadow-gnome fired earlier.
"It is a bit cramped. Were you able to see if the cave widens any up there?"
Taejin shrugs. "I'll stick near the rest of you. The dark isn't my home. I see black and sometimes a wall if I get really close. Sometimes I just get to feel the walls." Suiting actions to words, he shifts to stand near Sigfried, figuring that if anything wanted to attack from behind in the cave it'd see the massive wyrwood before it'd spot tiny old Hideaki Taejin.
Taejin sights the goblin and continues his tactic of rushing it, ignoring the irritation in his bite wound to cross the intervening distance in a blur of motion and launching a right cross at the short humanoid's face.
Taejin lets out a curse in Tien before attempting a combination strike, stepping forward and to the left as he attacks, attempting to punch one of the rat-thing's leg joints twice in rapid succession.
"This thing's got a nasty bite! I'm making sure it can't flank us, then I'll go for the goblins."
Taejin moves to engage the rat, not willing to let it close with his party members. His speed isn't far greater than normal, but he is noticeably faster than the average adventurer, a fact that might be noticed by the party and enemies both. His leg snaps out in a brutal kick, aimed at the rat's nose.
Taejin attempts to move closer to the goblins whilst staying in cover, hoping that Sindri's arrow is a sufficient distraction for the things. If he can close to fisticuffs range without being riddled with arrows, he'll consider it a win.
Taejin groans, speaking in his native Tien mostly for sarcasm's sake, "我累了不能够理解你的人。" With a wave, he beckons the elves closer. "C'mon, we don't bite. Well, I don't. We're going after the goblins, but, like I was saying earlier, something about this smells fishy. Safety in numbers, and there's more than enough gold to split. I say we all grab any supplies we need and set out immediately, and we can talk on the trail." Translation: I'm getting tired of not being able to understand you people.
Taejin attempted to commit the wyrwood's actual name to memory, before abandoning the meaningless, at least to him, letters and numbers in favor of his chosen appellation of Sigfried. Returning his attention to the strange grey gnome, he nodded. "That I am, a roaming martial artist in search of greater challenges." Taejin's attention was then commandeered by an old acquaintence, Lucius Coriarum. "Coriarum! What a coincidence. As a matter of fact, yes, even after splitting the pay this will still pay more than I make in a month of working with the Consortium. Not to mention it's been a while since I've had to fight something shorter than me, and I don't want my kicks to get rusty. That'd be inconvenient if ever I ran into a goblin inside a ruin." Looking over the assembled party, Hideaki counted himself, a front-line fighter, the Pathfinder telekinetic, and the gnome seemed to be some kind of archer. All they needed for a full team was some kind of magician. The martial artist scanned the crowd, or rather, the torsos of the nearest members of the crowd. Mentally cursing his height once again, he turned to the wyrwood next to him. "Sigfried, you're taller than me. Can you spot anyone who looks like they might be a competent spellcaster in the crowd? With all these people to pick from, splitting the payday five ways leaves us with six hundred each, and I'd prefer to have some sort of arcanist at my back going into the unknown." The look he turned on the Pathfinder spoke volumes; not one height joke out of you, not in the field.
Taejin nods in response to the wyrwood's query. He holds out a hand to the mechanical being, introducing himself smoothly; "Pleasure to meet you. My name is Taejin; Hideaki Taejin." His reasons for approaching the imposing construct were simple; anyone whose aura commanded that level of personal space... well, they obviously knew their way around a brawl, if people were giving them that kind of space instinctively rather than swarming curiously about the new kind of being. The smug satisfaction the short human gets from messing with the crowd is a secondary benefit. Looking over at the loud... gnome, of some kind, he supposed, Taejin raised his voice. "Take off someone's head with an arrow? That sounds like something to see. Care to join our little adventuring party?"
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