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"It's no monster," Penance says, letting the oars finally rest for a bit in his bleeding hands. "Just a really big canoe..." He breathes deeply, staring up at the sunny sky, and air that already feels less oppressive than the island's humid jungle. He clambers on board and, despite everything, a crooked smile takes over his face the sight of Jaavela. Talk about a sight for sore eyes... "Ah, 'm fine," he says with a lot more cockiness than he really feels, shaking out his aching, bleeding hands. "Killed a dragon today, fled certain death... that sorta thing. Lemme wipe my hands off and I'll give you a proper hello." At the captain's words, he turns a yellow-eyed glare on the man. "They're warriors worthy of the name, and allies," he says shortly. "The Consortium will have work for them. They may be savages, but damn if they're not good bastards to have at your back in a fight." The terseness fades from him and Penance stares back into the mists, just now coming to terms with how many men the Khaan lost... how many men they lost.... and the two agents who don't get to come home again. "Nine hells sounds about right," he says. "Or maybe that island is a tenth, all-new kind of hell. Never been so glad to see a thing in my life as the sight of your ship waiting for us, cap'n." Penance starts unbuckling his dented and damaged armor right there on the deck, appearances be damned. "I'll tell you all about it... if you get me drunk as hell. For now... can you turn the prow back to civilized lands? The Consortium will need our report... though I know already they won't be happy with it." That's an understatement. Thousands on thousands of gold pieces' worth of gear and men's lives got thrown at this expedition. The Consortium, in their mercenary measurement, will likely consider it a failure, Penance thinks. But he's alive. He's breathing. He's going to count that as a success. To the Khaan, in Ork, he says, "I... am sorry so many of your tribe fell to the waves, Khaan. But there is a new land waiting for those who survive. A land where the one you call God has no reach."
"Yes!" Penance shouts to the Khaan. He's exhausted, and his armor feels like it weighs a solid ton, but there's been no time or space in which he could spare the time to strip off the steel-- his arms have been needed to help pull on the oars. Every muscle burns with exhaustion, but Penance tries to find some last reserve to keep them going forward. "C'mon now, pull, all together!"
Lol, well, look at it this way, I couldn't have smited 3 times without your various buffs. :)
So, based on this post, the agent who first gave us the assignment actually kept the idol. I can't find any reference to us having it present with us during exploration-- any mention of it has always been in the context of a drawing that we've shown to others, a drawing Shinjuko made. If we were supposed to actually have the idol with us to access the island, that detail might have gotten lost in the shuffle, heh. If it IS inarguably with us, and we need someone to be holding on to it, Penance can. *shrugs* It's gold, so I assume it's heavy, and he's got the highest STR in the party. If one of the more studious types like Nim wants to have it, that's fine with me too.
Any sense of triumph Penance feels at the terrible dragon, the thing that's hung over them like a shadow for so long, being defeated.... fades quickly, as the world begins to shake around them. "Damn!" he roars. "Telemakos! Can you walk?" he shouts as he runs on the gore-spattered beach to dig the gnome out and get him on his feet. He hauls him over one shoulder like a sack of grain and starts towards the canoes. "Get to the boats!"
"C'mon, Abadar," Penance whispers in a prayer. "See us home. Back to where we're supposed to be... I'll start going to church or something..."
A claw rakes across Penance's extraordinarily-battered armor, but all things considered, it's a flesh wound, surprisingly light after the injuries Penance has taken so far on this damned island. He merely grits his teeth and readies to swing again. "Hang on, Telemakos," Penance grunts, and the sword comes up, and falls, again, again.
"TRY. YOUR S+#&. ON. ME," Penance roars as his golden-shining sword hacks deep gouges into the dragon's sides.
Penance's eyes widen. The enemy took the bait.... and now the little gnome is being crushed. Well. Hell. For one moment he's seized with the urge to help by healing-- but his hands tighten on the grip of his sword. The best thing he can do for Telemakos is try to kill the damned dragon. With a wordless shout, Penance runs forward, driving his sword as deep into Loremtantibus as he can... Abadar had better make it count, he thinks. His feet almost leave the ground as he hurtles forward, buoyed by the flying spell.
Penance's sword burns with golden light as it slices through scales like butter. "Pick on someone... a little closer to your own size," Penance growls.
Penance takes as a deep, bracing breath as he sees Arasmes ripped to unfortunate shreds. That's... that's probably.... going to be him... Ah, f*%* it, you only live once. Technically he's died like twice already, anyway-- or come close enough to spit at it. Somehow he doubts Pharasma will let Abadar bring him back a third time. "Thanks for the flight!" he shouts back at Telemakos, and adopts a defensive position, snarling up at the dragon. "Come on down! Magnus stayed in the sky too, thinking he'd be safe up there.... and I'm taking his bow home as a trophy!"
Penance grins despite himself as due to the protections and aid of his team-mates, he is able to ignore the acid burning into his flesh. "You've got to come down here to get to the gnome's bum, ugly! Or are you scared, now that you see how useless your acid is?" he shouts. Insanity to taunt a brute like that? Yes. But his only hope is that it will come down to earth, where he can strike at it... or that Abadar decides to make him fly. He hurriedly pours the oil down his sword.
"We need something to bring that thing down to... earth..." Penance says, trailing off to see if Nim's conjured ice will do the trick.
"Abadar.... let us stand strong in this hour," Penance says, raising his greatsword in the air, "...and let's give the bastard some scars to remember us by."
"Telemakos!" Penance shouts. "If Ras goes off on his own he's just going to get ripped to pieces alone like the last flying guy he went off to fight. We need to take that thing on as a group!"
As Penance watches the mercs get cut down, one after the other, in groups, falling and dying... he thinks back to the ship, to setting out from port with easy optimism and joking among the men. He thinks about Georg One-tusk, just a grunt like any other, who didn't make it even this far but his fate is the same as all these others: he won't make it home again. The savagery and butchery should shock him, disgust him, horrify him... any of that... but looking up as the dragon's shadow washes over them, the only thing Penance feels is... angry. "Not. On. My. Watch," he snarls, and the key hanging around his neck glows a brilliant gold as energy washes out from him.
"Telemakos! We're gonna need that acid protection pretty quick, I think!" He feels power washing over him from whatever Nim's done, and he grips his sword in both hands, glaring up at the dragon. Whatever happens, this is it. He may not go home either, but damned if he won't go out fighting.
With his initial orders to seek cover given, Penance turns to organizing the mercs into a rhythm of firing, drawing his own bow to provide example. "Two groups! Load your crossbow, hand it off to the man next to you to reload, take what he hands you, loose and repeat! Each group of five, pick the same flying bastard to fire at!"
Penance curses a blue streak at the sight of their ruined longboat, and joins his voice in those trying to shout for order. Even that bellowing dies away as he sees the onslaught of the dragon's brood. "Gods..." Penance stands rooted to the spot for a moment, then roars again: "Get back under the trees and form battle lines, you morons! They'll just pick you off on the open beach! WE STAND TOGETHER, OR WE EACH DIE RUNNING!"
GM:
Penance gets his armor donned. He's not hoping for a fight, but... better prepared than not, and also, it looks more inspiring for... 'the troops', and their band of refugees. He nods at the Khaan and leads his riding lizard forward to the head of the line. "Alright! Eyes alert, shout if you see something that shouldn't be! We will take you to a new land with no dragon!" As far as inspiring speeches go, it's not the greatest, but Penance feels just as ragged after the days of tension as many of the others do. He looks over to the other agents, verifying everyone's ready to go.
By day, Penance walks the rounds inside the mountain making sure to loudly talk about how they kicked the ass of that giant outside, and that they're going to get out of here just fine, and be back in the comforts of home soon....
Penance also lends his hands and carpentry skill to keeping the canoes on task. The sooner they get them done, the better, as far as he's concerned. They don't want to risk missing their deadline.
Penance tries to tug the drawstring of the bow, just for kicks, and finds it's like trying to personally haul the anchor chain of an enormous ship. "Gods," he says, half-admiringly. "Okay, it's not magic, but I still wanna take this thing home... wonder how many people you'd need to pull that string..." He rolls his head from side to side and gazes out into the jungle. "If Princess here was telling the truth," (he kicks the corpse) "then he was the dragon's biggest and baddest. That means we may have a little reprieve from them for a bit." The half-orc frowns. "Or it means that the next time we hit trouble, it's Daddy himself." Not ominous at all.
Penance picks up the bow, grunting at the colossal piece of wood. No, he can't use it, but damn if doesn't want to take it back to the mainland and show it off.... well, maybe they'll be able to fit it on the boat. "This thing magic?" he hollers at the other agents.
Go team!! Good work everyone. :) Level up stuff: Mercy: Poisoned Skill points: freebies into craft carpentry, profession soldier-- other skills into perception, kn: religion, ride, and intimidate Feat: diehard Stat boost: Wisdom Favored class bonus: 2 hit points Will get my full level 9 sheet up in a bit.
"G%#!++N!" Penance roars in savage joy as he sees the enormous body toppling from the sky. That's.... more.... like it. He stands there, breathing hard, adrenaline still racing through his body as he registers they survived the titanic assault of yet another of the dragon's children. "Everyone good? Everyone alright? Telemakos... uh... is your friend... okay?" Penance has only the vaguest understanding of what Arasmes is to Telemakos. Once he's caught his breath, Penance makes his way over to the giant's corpse. He wants to spit in its eye, if nothing else.
"Ahhh.... s~#!," Penance breathes as Arasmes, the only one of them that could keep up with a flying foe, gets perforated like a cheap target. The bow's never been his strong point. Teeth gritted, Penance lifts it and prays for luck. Not Abadar's strong point, either, but you never know.
Penance's first arrow sings narrowly past the monstrous form, and Penance grits his teeth even as the enemy grins. But the second arrow... the second arrow strikes true. A burst of golden fire erupts in the night, a long, thin line trailing the arrow to wreathe around the flying creature.
The beast tears mostly free, but remains partially caught in the chains of fire.
And the spell actually should be very useful against an actual dragon with a low reflex save, because, as you point out, dragons have elemental resistances and spell resistances. It's great for the thing you originally wanted to use it on, that you actually picked it to use against-- a true dragon, or something closer to a dragon than this guy. That makes it a great spell, in the right circumstance, as long as you understand that it's still going to allow a reflex save, and as long as you don't target someone who has a great reflex save. It's like a fighter swinging a sword at a skeleton and then saying his sword is useless. No, it's not, it's just not being deployed against the foe that it will work against. Look, I'm not trying to rag on you here. I'm saying that given that you have a strong pattern of interpreting spells and your wizarding abilities in a different fashion than the rules and the GM seem to support (web, invisibility, how many scrolls per day you can scribe, and now conjure deadfall, off the top of my head), maybe you should just be a little more careful in reading those spells and those abilities and be open to realizing that you can probably play more effectively, and then not have to feel like you've taken 'useless' abilities. You made a GOOD choice in taking Deadfall for the foe you originally wanted to use it on. It's just not a magic bullet for every big-sized foe. Whatever, though. As you said, it's your opinion. And the game's in its last stages so it really doesn't matter one way or another.
...because it didn't let you do 7d6 points of automatic, guaranteed damage with no attack roll and no saving throw the way you thought it did? When you aimed something that targeted a creature's highest save, even knowing what those saves were in advance? Hm. Guess most of the spells in the game are useless, then... We all mess up on minutiae of the rules sometimes, yo. But don't blame your tools if you didn't use them in the best fashion.
Penance swears when he sees Devram drop. He runs towards him, dropping his sword in the process and drawing his bow. He hates to let the thing get away to flee into the jungle, but.... the life of a man down comes first. After Shinjuko and Corridan, he won't lose someone else if there's even a chance Coates might still be alive.
You can kill me off in the big fight now with no regrets on my part. Penance had his moment of "ah yes, that is what I built this character to do".
Telemakos's spell saves them from some of the acid, and Penance feels the caustic blast more as a light shower. Gnome's earned his keep, he thinks. And doubly so, when he feels his body speeding up seconds later. "Thanks!" Penance says to Telemakos, all he has breath for, before he decides to make the magic count.
"ABADAR!" Penance yells. Let the f!@~ing dragon hear them somewhere in the f+!&ing jungle! "ABADAR, HELP ME PUT THIS UGLY SONUVAB%@*~ DOWN!"
Abadar, apparently, is listening. Penance's greatsword blazes like a golden star as it sweeps in devastating arcs of steel.
Penance roars as he is bathed in caustic acid yet again. As his vision clears, he gasps out, "sure... would... be nice to... have some protection from... that..." Almost instinctively, Penance calls on Abadar as he's had to do frequently the last few weeks-- trying to offset some of the terrible damage everyone just took.
"Sonofa..." Penance swears under his breath as he sees the enormous foe crashing towards them. "G%$##*mit. What do we have to keep that a$+%@#+ on the ground?" he growls to the others, in the same low tone. "If he flies and strafes us with that bow, we're gonna be pincushions." More loudly, Penance answers the creature's shout with one of his own. "That'd be us, princess! Though I think you and your family are more 'wormy' than we tend to be!"
Penance wakes drenched in sweat, and it's not all the fault of the humid jungle either. He pats at his arms and legs to convince himself his flesh is still there, then wipes sweat from his face and starts slowly, doggedly, donning his armor. He feels better having it on... And it seems the right choice to have made, when the roaring pierces the jungle.
Penance growls wordlessly, the exhaustion taking a deep toll on him and everyone else. He briefly considers punching the warrior, then exhales instead. "Fine," he says with half a snarl to his words. To the other agents, he says tiredly, "I'll bivouac out here with the gunk, and anybody else who wants to keep me company. Don't blame you if you don't wanna sleep around it though. But we've pushed the Khaan pretty far already... still kinda impressed Nim was able to get him to agree to leave his home. So I don't think we want to pick fights over the oil."
Seeing how the other agents are half-falling on their feet, even after his first prayers, Penance takes a deep breath and clutches the key around his neck again. "Abadar... we're trying to get back to civilization... or what passes for it locally... please make sure we do," he mutters.
eta
Penance refuses to stay out in either the cave or the jungle for the night. He slogs on with the same dogged stubbornness that's brought him back from the edge of death twice now.
At first he pushes on alright, but as the long hours pile up, even Penance starts to flag. When they grant themselves brief stops for wheezing breath, Penance calls on Abadar to keep them moving, the lizards too-- trying to do this on foot would be even worse, after all...
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