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Marnarius shrugs as he walks off. "As I recall it, I fired the shot that took down the Master of Scrolls. Without help from our 'fearless leader' who you've spent this entire mission belittling, you wouldn't have been able to touch him. But fine, have it your way. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Marnarius bristles at Joliryn's order but does grab Gazwyr's corpse. "I'll take him to Wolona; I'm sure someone in her group can manage a raise dead spell." As they continue through the halls of Skyreach and successfully hand over the Sky Key, he finally relaxes. "Rataji, Shohiraj, Zurnzal, I'd say it's been fun, but it really hasn't. Still, it was nice to work with professionals for a change. Elf," he turns to 322, "I still think you're creepy as f+&$, but thanks for keeping us all alive. I'll buy you a drink if we ever happen to run into each other again." "As for you Joliryn, you're a damn good fighter, but your little barbs aren't cute. If this mission had been any less important I would have slit your f*$!ing throat the first time you insulted me. So here's a word of advice, slip. Learn when to shut your mouth, or eventually someone will shut it for you."
Confident that the message has been received, Marnarius turns to head back the way they came. "Now that our mission's over, I'm going to go back and help out Wolona. We did leave her a man down after all, and she still owes me a drink. Maybe two, for finally getting her out of there." He offers one last wave and vanishes down the corridor.
Marnarius shakes his head at Joliryn's dramatics. "I don't give a s#&+ how he dies as long as he does. You want to strike the killing blow? Be my guest." He strolls back down the stairs and towards the glass case that seemingly holds the Sky Key, although he stops a few feet shy of the rope barrier. If I were the Master of Spells guarding a very powerful artifact, I'd have warded the hell out of it. So...what traps are here and how can we disable them?
Marnarius grins. ”Oh, fingers belonging to the Master of Spells would fetch a pretty price in the right market. I wonder if the Society will bid on them?” He continues firing his bow at Zey, for lack of other options. Why won’t this bastard fight on the ground?!
Marnarius comes to cursing and glaring at the now-visible Zey. Grabbing his bow, he wastes no time in standing up and firing a shot.
Trapped as he is on the catwalk, even Rataji's spell isn't enough to help Marnarius dodge away from the lightning. The spell hits him in the chest, and he crumples to the ground.
While he doesn't seem to be bleeding out, it's clear he's not getting up anytime soon.
Marnarius snarls with rage. "You know, I'm getting real tired of you running and hiding. Too afraid to actually face us?" Seeing the dragon charge at a particular area, he pulls out his bow again and blindly fires two arrows at the same spot.
As the glue begins to crack, Marnarius hurries up to the catwalk. Sword in hand, he gets as close as he can to the area where Rataji claims Zey is. "Gazwyr, I've got this angle if you want to keep flying around."
Marnarius draws his sword and slashes viciously at the goo binding him to the floor, eventually scraping some of it off.
Marnarius is not having a good time. He's covered in sticky glue that's hampering his movement, he's been knocked to the floor, he still doesn't know exactly where Zey is, and even if he did he couldn't take a swing because the bastard is apparently hiding somewhere on the balcony. In other words, he's pissed. Cursing loudly, he pulls himself to his feet and starts heading for the stairs.
Marnarius curses as he trips the trap anyway. "Damn it!"
Seeing his arrows have no effect on 'Zey', and hearing Gazwyr talk about illusions, Marnarius moves a few feet further into the room and fires blindly in the direction Gazwyr was attacking.
Unable to see a few seconds into the future where Rataji will inform them of Zey's actual location, Marnarius focuses on where he believes Zey to be. He takes a step into the room, (carefully avoiding the tiles Shohiraj pointed out), and draws his bow, quickly firing two arrows at 'Zey.' "You should have never messed with that damn Tapestry," he hisses. "You're going to pay for trapping us in there."
"Then let's head in." Assuming no one objects, Marnarius will open the door.
Marnarius frowns. He says in a low voice, "Looks like we don't have the element of surprise. Any preparations anyone needs to make before we open the door?"
Marnarius gives Wolona a hearty hand-clasp before they go their separate ways. "You still owe me a drink. Look after yourself out there so I can collect once this is all over." Finally we're all out of that damned demiplane. He casts one last hateful glance back at the Tapestry before heading off through the halls once more.
I have no interest in swapping characters at this point, so someone else can have the dragon.
Marnarius steps forward, an unusually warm smile on his face. "Greetings! It's good to see you all here, finally free of your unjust imprisonment." He gestures to the dead Pathfinders on the floor, shaking his head mournfully. "We offered them every chance to surrender, but they wouldn't take it. They were too devoted to the Pathfinder's 'mission' of raiding your settlements without ever allowing you the chance to defend yourselves. Too long have the Pathfinders been allowed to operate as they would, safe in this lodge, hopping into your world at a whim and taking whatever they wanted. But now you're all here. You can finally reclaim what the Pathfinders have stolen from you. Are you with me?!" He raises his sword high in the air.
Marnarius grins, looking down at the Pathfinder. "Congratulations. You 'guarded' this chamber for a minute or so. Hope it was worth it." Looking the Pathfinder right in the eyes, he takes his longsword in both hands and swings it down. He hisses slightly as the disruptive energy reverberates between them, but the grin never leaves his face.
Quick question: Does my 'new' sword have any special properties? I'm assuming it's at least a +1, otherwise there'd be no reason to swap.
Marnarius circles around the unfortunate gunslinger, drawing his new sword as he goes. "Such a shame, really. If only you hadn't been so stubborn about 'following orders' and being a good little Pathfinder, you wouldn't be in this situation."
Marnarius sighs. Keeping his voice low enough to not be heard by the people in the chamber, he says, "Of course there are guards. Think your 'Aram Zey' is good enough to order them away? Or better yet, have them follow you out here into an ambush." While waiting for a response he listens hard to the voices, trying to distinguish how many there are and what they're talking about.
"Good work Shohiraj. Got an idea of a good site for us to open this thing to. Some friends of mine are trapped in there, and they'll have gathered quite a crowd by now." He glances around the room, then sheathes his new sword. "To the Tapestry next, yes?" Once they're ready to start moving, he goes along as quietly as he can.
Marnarius smiles widely as he picks up a longsword. "And here I was starting to think I'd never see this again." He immediately replaces his previous longsword with it. Familiar weapon in hand, he starts looking around the room.
"Shouldn't have turned your back to me!" Marnarius calls out as he continues slashing at the creature.
Marnarius studies his newest target, grin still on his face. With Shohiraj distracting the creature from the other side, this should be much, much easier.
Finally felling his own opponent, Marnarius turns just in time to see Rataji's spell kill another one of the lizards. And the last one still can't fight... With a truly bloodthirsty grin on his face, he walks around to the other side of the lizard from Shohirajj. "Ready to tag team this one?"
"You know," Marnarius says conversationally, as he takes a step to the side to get a better angle. "I am really, really getting sick of that whole skin hardening crap." He continues attacking the creature, hoping to finally down it.
Unable to get into a good position to flank with the lizards crowded so close around, Marnarius continues focusing on the one he's facing.
You're right, that is straightforward and my bad. I somehow completely missed that their bite attack also had reach. (I do still think it's weird that they can grapple someone with their tongue and bite someone else at the same time, but that's just monster abilities for you.) Thanks for the explanation!
How did the chameleon bite me? It shouldn't have gotten an AOO; I didn't think I'd taken any actions that would have provoked one. Not trying to be argumentative, just a bit confused.
Marnarius snarls as the creature bites him. Without a word, he continues to viciously stab at the creature with all his strength.
Marnarius grins as Rataji gets pulled out of sight. "Can't say I'm disappointed about finally getting the chance to stab something." He moves past the elf, drawing his longsword as he does. Hmmm. Lizards, where's the best place to strike a lizard... Decision made, he takes the longsword in both hands as he swings at the creature.
...Oh great. They are alive. Hopefully they're fooled enough by our disguises to let us pass. Marnarius cautiously follows Rataji and Joliryn into the room and starts looking over the relics. Maybe some of them could be useful.
Marnarius peeks through the door, looking to see if there might be any guards around. Those lizard statues are suspicious as hell.
Otherwise he waits for 'Aram Zey' to take the lead on ushering them into the room.
"Thanks for the healing." Marnarius rolls his shoulders experimentally, testing for any remaining aches or pains, then glances at the door. Feeling a lot more gracious now that he's been healed, he says, "Don't worry about it Shohiraj, happens to the best of us and luckily it doesn't seem like anyone noticed. Anyway, now that the traps have been 'disabled' by the tried-and-true method of setting them off, let's just use the key and head inside."
Marnarius tenses as soon as the door starts yelling. Clearly things have gone terribly wrong, and so he's already halfway through a sideways leap by the time the door starts spewing flame. Despite his best efforts he still gets caught by the edge of the blast. "F&!%ing hell that hurts!"
"We're headed to the Antarnicus Wing first, correct? We need that information before we can use the Tapestry." Marnarius stays in the middle of the group, able to provide back up for anyone if necessary. He moves quietly through the halls.
Marnarius' eyes widen a bit as the halfling gets in his face. Didn't see that coming. Looks like I'm not the only one with a grudge. He'd be tempted to dismiss her interference as simply her being contrary. Or even as evidence that she actually is a double agent, as he'd half-seriously suggested to the elf. But that sort of rage couldn't be falsified. "Fine. I still think she's not going to be 'cut off' from the Society; Zone of Truth is an even easier spell than Speak with Dead. They're going to know she's not actually a traitor. But leaving her alive to wonder if she could have stopped the murder of her master if she'd just been a little bit more cautious..." He grins at Joliryn. "You're right. That is a more fitting vengeance than just killing her."
Marnarius starts pacing, a frustrated look on his face. "Leave her? Why? If you don't like the idea of dumping the body in Zey's chambers, fine, just hide the corpse here. Unless you want to leave her out in the open, we'd have to do that anyway. What advantage is gained from letting her live to tell her Pathfinder buddies all about us?" He casts a hateful look towards the unconscious halfling. "If none of you can bring yourself to slit a Pathfinder's throat, fine. I'll do it myself."
"Why don't we just kill her? Take the body with us; it's small enough to be stuffed in a sack and carried along. Dump it conveniently nearby Zey once we've killed him. Make it look like she turned on him and died for it. We let her live she'll be able to talk her way out of trouble. Dead she can't offer any explanations."
Marnarius leans against a nearby tree and watches the Pathfinder get beaten down, a sadistic smile on his face. Looks like they have this well in hand. He is ready to interfere if it looks like Janira might be getting away.
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