Lady Secunda grimaces when she sees Doritian fall -- and her eyes shoot from one person threatening her to the other, her teeth bared like those of a cornered rat.
"Damn you!" she hisses, her expression furious. "Damn you all!"
With that, her free hand dips into her skirt pocket, pulls something out and snaps it. Thick, black smoke billows out, filling the corridor, stealing the breath of those nearest to her, and you dimly hear retreating footsteps -- retreating at speed.
Pontia's summoned creature appears somewhere inside the smoke and you can hear it give chase after Secunda, but you can not see what is happening inside the smoke...
Secunda has dropped a smokestick in the corridor and is double-moving out of there. Kezzat, Mirandix, Bydar, please make Fortitude saves, DC 15. If you make the save, you can try to get in an AoO, but there is a 20% miss chance. If you fail the save, you are Nauseated for 5 rounds.
Initiative: Mirandix - Noya - Kyrax - Bydar - Robert - Arma - Secunda Jeggare FLED - Kezzat - Doritian DEAD - Pontia - Zhu - Bangu-Bangu DEAD- Xorshak DEAD
"Oooh, lookit the holy man!" Secunda spits, her expression scornful as Bydar moves to assist Kezzat. "Welcome to the party, holy man! Here, I'll initiate you in the order of the N --"
Secunda visibly gags, her eyes bugging out. "The N --" she tries to say again. "The N --"
Then her features fill with horrified realization and she shrieks at the top of her voice. Even as her voice rends your ears, a dagger slaps into her empty palm, then rends the air as it hurtles towards Bydar's face...!
Fortunately, the priest of Pharasma jerks his head out of the way just in time, and the blade only parts his hair in passing.
Laughing shrilly, Secunda takes a gliding, dance-like step back and beckons to Kezzat.
"Widdle Gobbie wants to play?" she calls out, tauntingly. "I already had so - much - fun playing with the bastard! Isn't widdle Gobbie sca-yu-red!"
The crazed noblewoman holds her ground and waits for Kezzat to approach, then lashes out with her knife, her smile turned to a snarl. "Die, you green-skinned filthspawn, DIE! Why couldn't you worthless Gobs just eat the little cow instead of handing her off to some Wizard?!"
Kezzat takes another 5 damage!
DM Zone, please keep out:
Secunda attack roll 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17 for 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5 damage.
In the corridor outside stands Secunda Jeggare! Her fine clothes stained with dirt, ashes and blood, her face scoured by her own fingernails and her skin as pale as a corpse's, the Chelish lady regards you all with joyful insanity.
"Hello again," she says, as brightly as a socialite greeting friends at a dance even as a flick of the wrist brings a fresh dagger to her hand. "Have you missed me, my dears?"
Robert's attempt to restrain Secunda further sadly goes wide. For a heart-stopping moment, he is looking into her Hell-bright eyes as she readies herself for another attack -- and then Arma is there, her shield interposed between the two combatants.
Secunda backs off, an unhappy keening rising from her throat, rather like the whining of a whipped dog. The lady bites her lower lip and you can see blood start to trickle down her chin.
"Yield?" she whispers. "Don't give up? Naive fools! What chance have we against a wizard that powerful...? What chance? No chance. No chance at all... You all have to die... It's my only chance...!"
Sobbing hysterically, the Lady Secunda turns and runs away from you, as fast as her legs can carry her while holding up her skirts with one hand.
Lady Secunda is fleeing the field of battle! Will you go back to the others or pursue her?
As Robert tries to trip up the Lady Secunda, she stabs at him most cruelly, her dagger aimed at his leg. Her dagger strikes true, slashing an artery -- and spraying Robert's blood across the barren rocks!
Despite this, Robert's attack does manage to knock the Chelish noblewoman down to the ground. The way she curses while going down is anything other than ladylike.
The Lady Secunda tries to roll away from you and make distance so she can get up without being stabbed, but a clear lack of training is showing as she lurches back to her feet well within your range.
"Who else, you dullard!" she screeches. "Lackwit! Buffoon! That little twit Valeria! She's dead! Of course she's dead! The Queen can't know I ran and let her die! You can't tell her!"
Attack of opportunity: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24 for 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 damage. Crit threat! Rolling to confirm: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22 for 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 damage.
Lady Secunda attempts Acrobatics to get out of immediate range: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10. FAIL!
Arma - and Arma ONLY:
As you jog down the stairwells, past the locked doors and down the stairwell after that, you start to hear sounds - the sounds of battle! The pumps hidden inside your body start to move more quickly, causing your hydraulic liquids and nanites to surge more strongly as you experience your version of excitement...!
Distantly, you hear Robert trying to talk to the Lady Secunda, but the lady is screaming like a madwoman, like a blood-lusting harpy! As you burst out of the cave, you see your companion, his body tattered and his blood splattered all around. He is indeed facing off against Secunda, who looks only a little less the worse for wear. If anything, you would assume she is having the better of Robert, despite being armed only with a dagger...!
"Don't call ME a COWARD!" Secunda howls as she slashes at you again. "I am NOT a coward! You have NO IDEA what the Queen would do to me if she heard that little b$!~! was killed on MY WATCH!"
Secunda stabs at Robert again! Dagger attack 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5 for 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4 damage.
Secunda dodges Robert's stab and laughs at him, madness in her eyes and her own blood on her lips.
"It's just never the same, is it?" she taunts you while tossing her dagger from one hand to the other, then stabbing at you again. "By-blows just never seem to get the same training as a child who is actually wanted!"
"I'll take... him... to the exit of the cave," Secunda suddenly speaks up, her face carefully neutral as she unlocks the cage -- there was a keyring hanging from a hook on this side of the prison door. "Come along. I'll cut you a walking-stick."
The Chelaxian noblewoman puts her shoulder under Horsehaw's arm and starts to guide him out.
"I'll catch you up once he's on the move out," she adds. "Keep going; we've wasted enough time here."
Secunda speaks up, her voice low and bitter. "I'll tell you where it leaves us. It leaves us not a single step closer to recovering my kinswoman! We have the map, we don't have to pay that old sot for it -- why are we still idling here? If there is someone trying to lure us into a trap, then let them bring it on! We'll carve the truth out of their mangy hides!"
An unholy fire seems to burn in the Chelaxian noblewoman's eyes, and her hands are balled into trembling fists -- trembling with rage, not fear.
