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"I dare say you haven't caught any idiots down here yet," Laya says. "Unless you're counting yourself," she adds under her breath. She continues more loudly, "Now then, tell us about this Scarred-Up person--strengths, weaknesses, talents. That sort of thing."
Laya uses the cure light wounds scroll on Ofelio.
"Paper is never stupid," Laya says and grabs the scrolls. "In fact, paper can be very, very useful sometimes." While the others ransack the stores, she spends time studying the scrolls. "Aha!" she exclaims. "All very useful. This one, in particular, will do just as well as one of those missing potions."
Laya administers the potion to Ofelio. Once he's stable, she sits down on the floor. "I really must stop trying flare," she mutters. "Clearly they're immune." She looks up at the others. "I get the impression this is going to be long and drawn out. They ambush us, we remove one or two of them before they fall back. Repeat until we run out of resources or they run out of people. The question is, which will happen first?"
"There really is no learning," Laya says quietly with a sigh. She casts flare on the closest opponent.
Laya pulls out her sling, but doesn't use it just yet. "He's right, you know," she calls out. "How many times have you had to fall back so far? We can keep the fight going if you want. Then you'll fall back again. You might be able to manage that one or two more times, but in the end, you'll just end up with more casualties. Better to just surrender now." She readies to use her sling on any of them that makes an attack.
Realizing the others are moving on, Laya scurries to catch up. "Wait for me!"
"Well, at least we got them to move," Laya says. "It buys us a little time." She starts examining the table and anything else in the area that the bandits left behind. "Now then, they'll eventually gather the courage to come back. Perhaps we can rig some sort of trap for them."
Laya does indeed continue to support the ruse with ghost sound.
"My message spell doesn't require concentration to maintain," Laya says. "Well, apart from the actual speaking, at any rate. So I can use that to help back up the sounds you create by saying scary things to them. Hmmm... Now what exactly should I say?" She mumbles the last sentence to herself.
"Do we have another smokestick?" Laya asks. "I'm afraid I only had the one. Still, I was just thinking the sounds would be enough."
"Yes, they were afraid of it," Laya says, nodding. "Unfortunately, I'm down to only the simplest of magic left. I could throw a few more flares at them in the hopes of momentarily--and I do mean momentarily--blinding one of them, but they resisted all my previous attempts to do that. Beyond that, I could determine if they're carrying anything magical or are under magical effects, but given their fear of magic, they're probably not. Not that it would help us much to know anyway. Or I could whisper to them, or even get an idea how valuable--" She stops suddenly, her mouth stretching to a wide smile. "Garim, that sound you made earlier. Could you do it again? With a combination of that and a message spell to whisper terrifying things at them, we might just be able to scare them out of their wits."
"Fall back for now, I think," Laya whispers. "We need a plan." Round 4:
"Smoke, of course, can have a very debilitating effect on human eyesight," Laya says, holding up the stick in her hands. As she lights it, smoke begins to pour out from it. Then she tosses it. Round 3:
Continuing to provide advice on how to fight the bandits, Laya moves cautiously forward. Round 2:
"Oh dear," Laya says as Ofelio falls. "Not a good start. However, I think Ofelio has given us a good demonstration of how not to attack these people. Instead..." As she speaks, she begins rummaging through her scrip. Round 1:
"We seem to have a bit of a stalemate," Laya mutters.
Laya accepts the potion from Genisen graciously. She looks much better after drinking it. "The ambush," she says quietly in response to Ofelio.
Laya peers into the trap door. "Ah, a tunnel," she says. "Well, tunnels are for following, I suppose. Who's first?"
Laya shrugs. "Then we'll be safe in the cellar." She pauses. "Not accounting for cellar ambushes, that is." She pauses again and scrunches her face slightly. "The fact of the matter is, at the moment, we're unsafe no matter where we are, so might as well do whatever seems the most proactive. The cellar seems our best bet. At least in there, they're not likely to be able to pelt us with arrows as easily."
"Exactly," Laya says. She starts helping Garim to block the door, although her small size and obviously limited strength means she has to struggle a bit. "Naturally, they'll be ready for us to follow them down there. They're probably preparing another ambush for us, so we'll need to be on guard."
"Probably waiting to call down another ambush on us," Laya replies, staring forlornly at the blood on her clothes. "I wonder if these towers are connected underground."
"It's also a fairly typical human response to withdraw when things get difficult," Laya continues. She backs further away from #2 and then casts another spell. A burst of light flashes in front of #2's face, but the bandit is able to blink his vision clear again. Laya scowls. "Some people prove particularly resilient." Round 14: -- pass
Seeing some space finally opening up, Laya steps around the corner of the grease spell, and rummages quickly through her scrip. She pulls out a bottle, pulls out the stopper, and bends over to administer it to Zuran. All the while, she continues chattering on about inherent weaknesses in humans. I think this should actually be Round 13:
Laya continues to point out weakness of their opponents. "Of course, as bipeds, balance can be an issue, too," she says. She sweeps her hand low and says an arcane word. "Careful of the slippery floor over here," she says as three of the bandits suddenly lose their footing and topple to the floor. "Well, I did warn you." She grins. Round 12:
-- fail
Laya gasps as Zuran falls and then gasp again as she takes a heavy blow herself. Somehow, she manages to keep on speaking through it all though. "Halflings and humans aren't all that different. Hit them in the same spot they hit me, for example, and they'll be just as hurt." She steps to the side. "They're also quite susceptible to bright light," she says and utters a single arcane word. There is a bright flash of light in the front of the face of the bandit nearest her. The bandit blinks a couple times, but seems otherwise unaffected. "It does need to be very bright," Laya adds. Round 11:
"While less predictable than dogs, people are lot more vulnerable," Laya says. "Lots of squishy bits. If you try going for..." She continues on, pointing out the vulnerable areas on their attackers. Round 10:
"I completely neglected to consider that possibility," Laya says, smacking the side of her head as the bandits pour out from beneath the stairs. She stabs with her dagger at the one passing her. Unfortunately, all she manages is a scrape along the bandit's armour.
If nothing else, this is giving us a chance to catch our breaths," Laya mutters.
"Just be patient," Laya whispers to the others via the message spell. "I've greased the stairs. Make them come to us."
"We're bound to have visitors from upstairs," Laya says. "Don't go up to them. Let's draw them down. HEY UP THERE!" She then casts a spell. Round 6: Cast grease on the stairs over the area covering H/I -20/-21.
"Our only hope is to get inside one of these things," Laya says to Zuran, "preferably all in the same one, but Ofelio and Garim are so far apart." With her right hand, she points at Ofelio, and crossing over her arm with her left, she points at Garim, and whispers. Garim and Ofelio:
"We need to stay together. Move to Zuran and me." Round 4:
Laya stops yelling out instructions about the dog and pauses to look about. She points towards Ofelio and mutters something. Then she huddles by the stairs and tries to pinpoint the location of the archers. Round 3:
Ofelio: Laya's whispered voice reaches Ofelio's ears. "Ofelio, get under cover quick!"
Laya, was her double move towards the melee or one of the towers?
"Watch out for how the dog... Laya continues calling out advice about face the dogs, as she hurries across the ground. Round 2:
"Careful! Laya calls out while hurrying forward. "Dogs will always attempt to flank, but you can distract them by... She continues calling out specifics about dogs that help to fight against them. Round 1:
Laya looks at the wall and looks to the side. Deciding it'll be quicker to go around, she moves to the left and around the edge of the wall.
Travelling:
"Absolutely terrible," Laya replies, picking up her pace to try and catch up. "They tried teaching me to use a rapier at the White Grotto--for stage fighting or something like that. I somehow managed to pass that course, but that wasn't down to my swordsmanship. Though I do recall I got pretty good at hitting large, stationary targets. Like walls. Personally, I prefer to rely on my wits. They've served me well so far. Of course, I've never been out questing before, so who can say how they'll serve me now, so I do have a dagger and a sling that I'm not completely incompetent with." Until the man's cry for help is audible, Laya doesn't seem to be paying much attention, gazing about at the trees and the sky, sometimes even facing completely the opposite direction and walking backwards. As soon as the she hears the cry, however, her head immediately snaps in the direction of the sound. As Ofelio sprints forward, she calls out, "Ofelio! Don't rush ahead!" With a sigh, she casts message, so she can keep in contact with the rest of the group even if they get too far ahead of her due to her slower speed.
Journey:
"Confident?" Laya says in surprise to Ofelio's question. She actually stops walking for a moment. "I suppose I do seem confident, though I'm not sure I have good reason to. As for questing before, no, can't say that I have. Have you?"
Laya watches the knight wander off and shrugs. "Well, that was a little strange. Introduces himself, then wanders off before we can introduce ourselves. Oh well. Time to be off, I think."
"Well, I suppose we should get started," Laya says, clapping her hands together. "No better time than the present." She checks that her scrip is done up tight and turns to leave. Then she stops suddenly. "Oh!" she says, slapping her forehead. "What about Father Tolion's funeral? I didn't really know him, but I feel I should attend that, just out of respect. Should we wait until after the funeral to leave, or do you think there'll be time to go there and back before the funeral? Assuming we come back, that is. Ultimate evil and all that. Probably means we stand a fair chance of never being seen again. Makes you wonder if we're being foolhardy. Quite possibly. Anyway, the funeral. When will it be?"
"Peaches?" Laya shakes her head. "No, they're not even like peaches I'm afraid. More like..." She takes the stopper out of one of the bottles and sniffs again, wrinkling her nose slightly. "More like swamp water. Rather unpleasant, actually. Hopefully, they don't taste so bad. But as long as they work..." She places the stopper back on the bottle and then carefully places her three bottles into her scrip. |