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Ryoken is just about to switch his attention to the black spider to take advantage of its distraction from Erianna when she moves. He's then about to go back to working on the brown spider when Mwenye pops up on the other side of the black one. Shrugging, his switches his target mid-swing, turning the action into a feint and unloads upon the black spider.
Swinging his twin blades left and right, Ryoken parries and dodges the spider bites, trying to split his attention between the two foes. Dimly he hears Jaska's calls, but he knows rushing to the downed woman would only let the two giant spiders next to him feast upon the bound bandits he was distracting them from. A good leader would gladly give up her life to protect those under her command. Once these vermin flee or die, then I will be able to tend to her. If she still lives.
Ryoken grimaces as another bite gets through his thick armor, the brief burn of poison burning through his veins before his body fights it off again. He needed to even out the numbers quickly, before his body gave in to all the toxins rushing through his system.
Oops, sorry. I'll try to remember to use the discussion thread next time.
[previous save doesn't count]
Relevant paragraph if needed: Poisons fall under the category of afflictions. They each have a save, a frequency, an effect, and a cure. At the most simple level, this means that when a character comes into contact with the poison, she gets a save. If the save succeeds, the poison has no effect, regardless of the cure entry. If the saving throw is failed, the character takes the effect and must continue to makes saves, dictated by the frequency, or continue to take the effect with each failed save. The only way to be free of the poison at this point is to meet the conditions of the cure entry, usually one or more successful saving throws (usually consecutively if more than one).
Ryoken grimaces as he feels the spider's fangs sink in to him. The wound burns slightly but quickly fades as his body manages to fight off the toxin. He edges slightly away from the spider behind him, drawing his second blade as he continues to lash out at the spider closest to their prisoners. However, at just the wrong moment, the venom briefly resurges, causing him to miss the creature.
Well, ok, he was wrong about the insect part. Though in his defense, it's not like Ryoken generally spent much time around giant bugs or spiders to be able to tell their sounds apart. He grimaces at the screams of the dying. He didn't like them, but they were his prisoners and in his care. Gritting his teeth, he dashes over to their captives to try to distract one of the spiders on the other side.
He hits his blades together, making a loud clang as strength flows through him before swinging at the oversized arachnid.
The first day, shortly before retreating in to his little rope trick hut for the night, Ryoken spent his remaining energy healing his companions, including Dart. He wasn't sure what had come over the man, once such a braggart. Had his words been all lies and false bravado? Had his first real taste of battle scarred him beyond what his magic could heal? Some men were as such. As they continued on their journey, he idly wondered how long their new companion planned on following them for. It was unclear if she were merely trying to help escort dangerous criminals back or if she planned to stick with them further. After all, given their final destination, not many would choose to make themselves companions to such a group. Though if rumors were true, they could certainly use all the help they could get. Though most likely it would make no difference other than to add to the Rappan Athuk's body count. As they made camp later that night, Ryoken rolled his eyes at their cook. Did he not realize how...unclean it would be to eat their prisoners? Perhaps it wouldn't be as bad for him since he was a ryuu-ko, and dragons were already known for eating mortals foolish enough to anger them. But a human eating another human simply wouldn't do. He stiffens as he hears the chittering. It sounded...insectoid perhaps? Though it was unclear if that implied they were merely dumb creatures acting out of instinct or if they had some higher intelligence behind them. Just in case they were of the latter variety, he called out, "Unless you wish an honorable death, I suggest you leave us in peace." He held out his hand and began tracing a symbol in the air. "鉛" At his side, his twin blades grew heavy preparing to slam heavily in to whatever was out in the dark.
I would definitely say first take the bandits back. My inclination is to do more side quests before the dungeon because more XP = marginally less likely to die, but also because I think it would be better to deal with the kobolds quickly/before they have too much of a chance to organize behind the dragon. But as a player, I am also interested in getting to the dungeon proper, so I can be convinced otherwise. Though if we survive and if the land is then ravaged by dragon flame, prepare for Ryoken to throw some "I told you so" looks. ;-)
Ryoken blinks at the woman's name. Surely he had misheard? Or, perhaps more likely, it was just his poor grasp of common making him misunderstand it. He supposed it didn't really matter. They would turn her in, and it was likely they'd never see her again. Or if they did, they would have better things to deal with than remembering her name. "It appears there is not much left down here. It would seem it is time to move on and head back? From there we can decide next steps; if we are to try to hit the kobolds before they organize or continue our journey to the Rappan Athuk."
Behind his somen, Ryoken rolled his eyes. Words were cheap and bluster was easy. They should have just killed her when they had a chance; she hadn't provided them with any useful information, and she was starting to get on his nerves. Really, if she had any shred of decency, she would ask for a knife to reclaim her honor with. It would certainly make their lives easier. He was tempted to send her to jigoku himself, but now that she was in their custody, he suspected the local law would consider that murder. He keeps these thoughts to himself though, opting to simply say, "Your feeble threats reflect poorly upon yourself."
"Or perhaps it is best to strike at the kobolds before they have time to rally behind the dragon. But the real question is what will cause more damage in the short run- the evils we have heard tales of here or the Rappan Athuk attracting more evils. Whichever one we face, the other will continue to affect those nearby while we deal with it."
Ryoken considers posing his own questions to the woman. However, he suspected it was best to try to get her to reveal as much as they could on her own before diving into more focused areas of inquiry. As such, he quietly helps tie up the other bandits and then takes a lookout position and the others question the woman.
"She may be a lawless bandit, but she sacrificed herself to let her people escape. For that I applaud her." Seeing that his companions didn't seem interested in pursuing the fleeing ones and had already made sure that the leader would not bleed out if she hadn't already been slain, Ryoken crouches down to keep a look out between the different tunnels. "I take it we question her if she yet lives and then continue looking around if she does not? If she lives, we may want to put her with our other bound 'friends'."
Ryoken scoffs. "It is always the way of those without honor to try to give some excuse for their ill deeds. Just another lie to help them sleep at night and ward away the screaming faces of those they have hurt." He then unleashes another torrent of attacks against the leader.
Just a heads up that I'll be packing/traveling Sunday and Monday and probably won't get a chance to update then. Bot me as necessary (I'm basically just going to be attacking people anyway).
Ryoken continues to move forward, ready to start swinging left and right to lay the bandits low.
Realizing that trying to fight around Mwenye would likely not work well, Ryoken uses his enhanced speed to dash down the other tunnel towards the bandits.
Ryoken shrugs. "They have made their choice to become bandits, to live outside the law and hurt others for their own gain. Now they must accept the consequences of their actions. Only by accepting their fate gracefully can they hope to reclaim some shred of the honor they have abandoned."
Ryoken shakes his head at the bandit foolish enough to try to stop them. He had shown more brain when he had run for his life. He then steps forward and unleashes a mighty torrent of attacks, far faster than any would expect.
Growling, Ryoken likewise charges forward at superhuman speed.
"We have faced perhaps five or six bandits at a time with little trouble. The leader is a bit more worrisome as most likely the strongest of the group and unknown to us. The last bandit leader we ambushed while she was asleep, but she appeared to be a spellcaster of some sort. But we must also remember that if they think we will win the confrontation, they are likely to bolt down another little passage like this one."
Ryoken remains quiet and still, waiting for some sign to proceed or for their scout to report back.
"Yes...and it appears it was a bit hungry upon waking up." Ryoken does his best to keep low and avoid too much of the smokey air.
Ryoken shrugged. One way was about as good as another.
"Seems reasonable." Ryoken nods.
Ryoken moves to hold is ioun torch in a way to illuminate the ground for their tracker, but it winds up not being very useful.
"It would be better to bring them to justice. But I guess there are more important matters to attend to first." Ryoken redraws his blade, ready to once again clank along at the rear.
"We could put them down a pit, assuming there are no spikes at the bottom. Harder to get out while tied. Though also, perhaps, difficult for us to get them safely down and up again. As for our next path, I would think a side passage not traveled by the dragon would be most likely to have surviving bandits."
Ryoken helps Erianna with disarming the bandits. He then tears off a spare piece of cloth and sheathes one of his dual blades. "水" With a wave of Tamashi, water appears out of no where to wet the cloth. He hands it to the coughing man. "Stay low. Put over mouth and nose to breath." Convinced that they were likely of little threat, he looks over those they have in front of them while the nekojin ran after its nezumi.
Figuring he probably couldn't catch the guy even if he did run away, Ryoken settles himself for carefully watching the bandit should his exit include thrown weapons before it left. "We were not so foolish as to anger it."
Ryoken ignores the unclean, rotting bodies, sparing them only enough of a glance to assure himself they would not be a threat if they were less dead than they appeared. At the new room, as before, he hangs back in his clinking armor, waiting for a signal to dash forward and in to battle. Or move forward into relative safety.
"Perhaps poke ground in future? They seem to be fond of holes." Ryoken whispered as he started to keep an eye out for a staff or stick that could be used to test the ground.
Ryoken nods, preparing himself to dash in and slash at thing should Mwenye give any sign that there are hostiles inside the room ahead.
Pulling out his ioun torch, Ryoken tosses it up to let it slowly rotate around his head. He then takes up a position in the back knowing that he's especially un-sneaky with the floating torch.
"If they were smart enough to avoid being destroyed by the dragon, we should make sure to break them ourselves, so they cannot continue to raid innocent travelers." Ryoken gets ready to move towards the cave to begin searching for remaining bandits.
"This does not bode well for the surrounding areas." Glancing at Zzarok, he adds, "Or future interactions with the clans around here. Do we need to calm our companion? Or make quick to finish off the bandits as they are confused?"
Knowing that his sneakiness, *ahem*, left something to be desired, Ryoken waits for Jaska to move forward first. As he prepares to take up the rear position, he pauses to mutter under his breath, his weapons growing heavy in his hands.
"I do not think invisibility is called for just yet. Or at least, not for all of us. It might aid one person in scouting if we wish, perhaps. Another, much slower possibility, is to wait for a group to come out, follow them, and take them out some distance from here. It would thin their numbers."
And I just realized I probably should have leveled up my character before making the Kn(local) roll. Oops. Oh well. I also discovered that I was only giving myself 2 base skill ranks per level when Occultist apparently get 4. :X Lvl 6 summary: +1 BAB
+1 all saves +14 HP (10 + 3 Con + 1 Favored class) +2 Dex Adventuring Skills
Background Skills
Occultist:
Fighter
"How shall we best search for an ambush? As you may have seen, I am not the most quiet in this armor. Nor the most fast, should I need to give aid to whomever we send to scout."
@DM: I just remembered, were the rest of us supposed to level up to 6 after the last encounter? I seem to recall it was going to happen relatively soon, wasn't it?
"It looks like they have gotten some warning, perhaps. Six seems large for cave entrance, no? And undoubtedly, traps inside. Unless anyone has magic to help, I do not thin we will be able to take them all out before the alarm gets out." Though they are a fair distance away, Ryoken keeps his voice soft. He then turns to the lizardfolk, "Zzarok, any idea how many strong the bandits are?"
Ryoken once again puts things into his magical backpack, attempting to destroy anything that won't fit, so that they cannot continue to be used for such lawlessness again. He isn't quite as thorough as he would like though, eager to continue onwards before the remaining bandits had too long to prepare for them.
"I gather it is spiders, actually. The undead were by the sea, I think. I am Ryoken. どうぞ よろしくおねがいします." He gives a small bow before flicking his blades to rid them of gore and sheathing them. "Erianna, Mwenye, did you catch up to all that fled? Or must we make fast, so the rest of them do not have time to prepare?"
Twin swords at the ready, Ryoken immediately moves to place himself between his companions and the newcomer. Both to a shorter distance to run if she proved hostile and to slice her arrows from the air if she fired at them. "What is your business here?" His words are carefully spoken with only the barest hint of an accent.
Glaring at the retreating forms of the bandits, Ryoken returns to Dart's side. Even if he couldn't keep up, he could be of use looking after the wounded man to make sure nothing popped out of the bushes to finish him while they all gave chase. Those two seem capable enough. I'm sure they can handle things. He brings his sword up and then down towards Dart, stopping a few inches short of his nose. "健" A blue light pulses down the blade and disappears into the man, mending some of his wounds.
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