Search Posts
Randall opens the Ogre's enormous maw and screams "Run! Run!" as he begins wildly flailing around with its oversized Falchion at the goblins.
Randall's eyes open wide...or at least someone's do. He feels the physical world again, though it appears much...smaller than it used to.
While still disoriented, Randall begins to understand what's going on, and catches onto an inkling of an idea that might help the rest of his allies avoid his fate. He reaches toward the ogre and pushes as hard as he can into him, praying that the beast's mind is as weak as its body is strong.
Randall feels his hand being pulled into Zupon's body, for a moment getting a glimpse into the man's thoughts...before he is suddenly pushed back in a burst of mental energy! He feels his form continue to deteriorate...
Randall brings up his ranseur to block the incoming attack from the giant. The impact is heavy, and drives him to his knees, but he manages to block it, to his own surprise. Desperately he lashes out again, scoring a direct hit on the ogre...to no effect. Confused, he keeps trying to slash, and only notices after a moment: he can't touch the giant. With a growing sense of horror he takes in his surroundings. The shocked expressions of his companions, their attempts to escape...and his own body lying on the floor, cut nearly in two. In his shock it's not his own death that bothers him the most, but the destruction of his hat and ribbon; gifts from his friend Ellis, who he'll now never get to reunite with. After a few moments of just standing there, emotions warring within him, he begins to feel something else: he's...fading. So this is what happens when you die, huh? A moment for it all to sink in and then your just gone? The faint feeling of his essence just bleeding into the ether intensifies, and he reaches out blindly to steady himself against the wave of dizziness, hand brushing into Zupon's shoulder.
Randall thrusts with the ranseur as the athletic goblin arches backward, the blade just going over her torso. Hinged at the knees, she snaps back like a spring under tension as Randall pulls the attack back.
Randall steps in, alarmed by the quick reactions of the giant creature. "Get in here!" he barks at Xeph, then takes a stab at the giant.
Randall walks up to the nearest unopened door he can see, inspects it closely, then (if he finds it satisfactorily safe), kicks it open with one of his sturdy guard boots, landing inside the threshold with weapon readied.
"I don't doubt your combat prowess in your peak condition, but you're unarmed and have been captive for a while. Rest, and perhaps come back to help us later if you're really feeling up to it."
"Yeah, it might be safer if you folk stayed here until we were done clearing this floor. Then we can escort you all back to town without needing to worry about an ambush from behind." Taking aside some members of the party: "We should also separate out the goblins and the humans into other rooms. Tensions will only rise again if they're left together."
"Calm, Xephkiel. These good people are distressed. I'm sure they wouldn't seriously suggest slaughtering creatures in cold blood if they were in a less distraught state of mind." he says, raising an eyebrow at the agitated group of townsfolk.
"Payback for what? These goblins clearly weren't your captors; they're locked up in here too. I'm kind of curious as to why, myself."
"Sergeant randall Harkness, with the army. These are a group of freelancers who've been tasked with clearing this fort of monsters. We had no idea you were being kept prisoner here. Is there anyone else you know of that may be held elsewhere?" As he says this, he indicates to the resident kunoichi that she should try to get the cuffs off these people if possible.
Randall looms behind Chigao, ready to strike if anything tries to smash her when she opens the door again.
Seeing that Xeph's medical care is well in hand, Randall turns to a different form of damage mitigation, and skewers a goblin.
Randall gamely keeps trying to skewer goblins.
Randall shrugs. "Looks like they're not in the mood to negotiate." he says, then steps in and shanks the scared one.
But the goblin's frightened quaking does a surprisingly good job of keeping it safe.
At a bit of a loss, Randall tries pantomiming by thunking the butt of his ranseur on the ground, then pointing towards outside, gesturing forcefully.
Breathing deep, as Chigao starts to take actions Zupon isntead assesses the damage, "You took that hit exceedingly well. Let me patch you up. That would've taken my head off I think." Randall rubs his neck as that image comes into his head. "Might have taken mine, too, if he'd landed that hit head on." "...No pun intended."
Randall grunts as the glorified club slams into him, and struggles against the bugbear. At first he presses hard, using his greater physical strength to force the goblinoid back...then quickly reverses course, stepping back and bit and throwing the bugbear off-balance as he lines up another thrust.
Unfortunately, his shoulder freezes up at the wrong moment, a bit of spike broken off from the morningstar scraping sickeningly against bone. His attack goes wide.
Randall blanches slightly at the description. "Given the only thing we've seen up to now are goblins...sounds like we might be dealing with bugbears. They're nasty, cruel creatures. It's always a pain when the army has to put down an organized group of them." He moves forward and sets himself up to limit their movement if they attack.
Rules Weeds:
Swift Action rules: You can take a swift action anytime you would normally be allowed to take a free action. Free action rules: You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. The latter is why you can do stuff like activate Power Attack on a readied action as well.
Randall moves up to take a point position in the hall. "Definitely funnel them here. They're much less dangerous if they can't surround us."
Xephkiel uses detect evil on the goblin trio.
Randall lowers his spear and jerks it toward the door. "You three get out of here. Your tribe is done for."
Randall levels his pokey stick at the figure and peers closer. "What is it? A rat?"
Randall gives Xephkiel a grateful nod as he pulls the arrow out of his leg, and the angel's holy light covers over the wound in moments. Then he goes to shank a goblin.
Like a spearfisher, he skewers one of the hapless creatures and draws it out into the light. And then he rips the spear free with a bloody spurt.
"What? More goblins or something?" Randall moves forward to investigate, a bit more cautiously this time. He steps in front of the angel(?) to defend him. "I'll hold them here while you get whatever you're doing ready!" he calls back to Zupon. He snakes out with his ranseur at the nearest goblin; one of the bow wielders if possible.
Randall opens up one of the wine bottles and takes a sniff. At first he recoils, but then gives it a second appraisal with a shrug, and stows it in his pouch. "You know, wine like this that's turned to vinegar can still be put to use. Braise some venison or other game in it and you have a hell of an upgrade over your usual trail dinner."
"Yeah...let's leave the deep dank hole full of gods know what alone. Doors are more of a known quantity." Randall says, then begins pulling on the waterlogged door.
"Whew. That door's really stuck in there." He strains again.
"Wait, if he can't fly, how can he float back out?"
Randall nods gratefully at Chigao and Zupon, then looks sheepish. "Honestly, I don't know. I just reacted on instinct. I didn't think anything...out of the ordinary would happen there. I've never even considered I might have magical abilities."
"Maybe I overreacted a little to most of my blood splashing onto the floor at once, feel free to write a complaint to my superior later." Randall quips, pale faced and droopy-eyed.
Randall, already woozy from blood loss, is a bit annoyed by the creatures tossing sticky goo at him. He focuses, and deflects the bag with the haft of his polearm.
Martial Focus:
A character who has the combat training class feature, the Extra Combat Talent feat, or who has gained a martial tradition or combat talent progression by some other means can achieve martial focus.
Characters gain their martial focus after a minute of rest, or by taking the total defense action. You may not by any means regain focus more than once per round. When you have martial focus, you can expend your focus as part of any single Fortitude or Reflex saving throw you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your saving throw is treated as if you rolled a 13, similarly to taking 10 on a skill check, except that the number you add to your saving throw is 13. You can also expend your martial focus to gain the benefit of certain combat talents and class features, as described in their entry, while other talents and abilities may require you to currently have martial focus. Once you have gained martial focus, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance). He summons up the last of his energy to try and skewer the goblin.
Randall cries out in pain as the little shits start stabbing him in the shins. "Get " he screams, his voice resonating and exploding out from him in a wave of force.
Explosive Ululation:
Explosive Ululation (shout)
Prerequisites: Warleader sphere, Diplomacy 1 rank. You may perform an ear-splitting scream. All targets within the area of effect suffer 1d8 sonic damage, +1d8 per 4 ranks in Diplomacy you possess. In addition, the targets become deafened for 1 round, +1 per 4 ranks in Diplomacy you possess. Targets are allowed a Fortitude save to halve the sonic damage and negate the deafened effect. You may expend your martial focus when performing an explosive ululation. If you do so, all targets who fail their Fortitude save (as well as unattended objects) are immediately subject to a bull rush combat maneuver performed as a free action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, using your ranks in Diplomacy + your Charisma modifier as your CMB. Targets are pushed directly away from you, and you cannot move as part of this maneuver. There is no size limitation on what creatures you may bull rush in this manner. You may spend a free action to warn your allies before using this effect protecting them from the shout’s effects, but doing so grants all other creatures a +5 circumstance bonus on their saving throw. This is a supernatural effect.
Randall shrugs back on his lightly singed cloak. "On the bright side, the fabric should be extra warm for a bit."
"Shit!" Randall shouts and moves forward; ripping off his standard issue cloak he wraps it around Chigao to smother the flames. After a few moments of frantic patting, he stops. "You okay? How bad is it?"
"Maybe. It's been a few days here, and we've seen no other sign of them. But then that begs the question of why they were here at all."
"Hm. Blood Moons are here. Local goblin tribe. And...something else. Bigger than a goblin, man-sized. They seem to be together."
"Maybe the ghosts showed up pretty quick and scared off people from both sides?"
Randall shakes his head. "It's your show, then. They don't generally call in the guard for ghosts. Or the army for that matter." He takes another look at the spirit, and his gaze hardens. "Dead children, though? Yeah, that's in our wheelhouse. Even if we lay his spirit to rest, there's a chance the sick bastard that did this is still out there."
"Are...you sure you should be doing that Nathan? What if he tries to eat your soul or something?"
Randall pales a bit at the sight of the ghost boy. "I think we found who...what was crying last night." he whispers to Zupon.
Randall wakes up, groggily at first but he quickly becomes alert. He takes a moment to think. "Chances are it's a trap of some kind. You said this fort has been largely abandoned save for bandits, right? The only things I can think of that would be 'sobbing' are things looking to play on your better nature to get the drop on you." "Definitely don't ignore it...but I don't think we should investigate it too carefully either. Maybe in the morning, when everyone's rested and ready. On the off chance it is someone in need of help, they're softly crying, not screaming in pain or fear. Implies they're not in any immediate danger."
"You know, when I overheard you say you were an angel back at the inn, I thought that was some kind of euphemism or something? You saying that's for real?"
"Resting is a good idea, given the number of injuries we've taken. And then maybe we can talk about tactics. I keep forgetting you guys just kind of fell into this. You're not a unit."
Randall shanks the nearest spider.
Randall, showered by spider parts, shouts encouragement to his allies. "All right, we're half done. Now you!"
Then Randall sets to ripping himself free of the webbing.
Randall follows the wise scholar's lead and puts roast spider on the menu, tossing the torch again.
|
