Gorbash and Tamroohk battled hard with the dark stranger made of ill-will and shadow. With one powerful lunge, it drove its two dark rapiers deep into Tamroohk's soul thus striking her down. She collapsed and with her unconsciousness the Spirit Guardian bears evaporated into nothingness.
The shadow-man leered over Tamroohk's body as Gorbash rushed up to defend her. It pointed one of its dark blades at Gorbash. "Leave her! Retreat now. Pray that I do not take your life as well."
Gorbash popped the cork on his last remaining healing potion and forced it down Tamroohk's throat. She sputtered and returned to consciousness, weak and dazed, and he started dragging her body away from the menacing shadow-thing that threatened their very existence. Cursing under his breath, Gorbash made a desperate plea: "Hey, Berronar. Berronar Truesilver. Hey. Are you listening? We need a way out of this. Uh, we're going to get killed. Are you listening?"
Almost as if in response, the blue shadow of another female dwarf returned to surround and encompass Tamroohk's body. Tamroohk was barely conscious and weak. In a fit of rage and pain, the blue shadow - the image of Berronar Truesilver - squinted, opened her mouth wide, and began to scream in a rousing battle cry, and just then, Tamroohk's body stiffened, her eyes shot open, and she also began to yell a battle cry at the top of her lungs as she was infused with divine energy!
[DM's Note: Tamroohk received +24 HP from a Cure Wounds].
In response, the mysterious dark aggressor immediately assumed a defensive position with his rapiers and burst into a hundred ravens, soared into the sky, and reformed on top of a large boulder near both Gorbash and Tamroohk. It menacingly pointed its rapiers towards the two Dwarves. "You meddling cunt - I will take both of their lives!" [A little bit of editorial license here - this wasn't said at the gaming table but that's what the entity would have said if the DM were allowed to be a bit more crude...]
Gorbash lunged at the creature with his axes, swiping it ineffectively at its ankles, and Tamroohk cast another Spiritual Guardian spell causing radiant bears to attack the entity. "Argh!", it exclaimed, trying to defend itself from the ethereal creatures, then it burst again into ravens and flew off into the sky.
"Victory!", Vongur proclaimed as Gorbash reached out to Tamroohk's arm to help her to her feet! All three of the dwarves (Vongur included) cheered as a magic circle of blue energy formed around them. There was a blinding blue light and both Gorbash and Tamroohk covered their eyes ...
* * *
"Don't worry about me," Tolman said, his 3'-tall frame fending off five or six sword-swinging pirates just as Siegride, Ma'yah, and Llewellyn witnessed a whole new wave of fleeing lizard folk and marauding pirates rush into the yard.
Panic was everywhere and the pirates were taking down innocent lizard people! Tolman took some good licks from his attackers but managed to feint some of the damage, but he was starting to get low in hit points. Elan, who was being chased down by some pirates, attempted to side-step their attacks so she could get some clear shots in, evoked two attacks of opportunity - both of which rolled a natural 20 - taking her down and tossing her body into the earth.
Seizing her opportunity, the green Cleric of Takhesis cast Silence over the area where Ma'yah, Llewellyn, and Siegride were fighting their way through berserkers and pirates, and suddenly all three of them suffered a severe inability to cast spells! Ma'yah drew her dagger backed herself into a nook in the lizard folks' dwellings, and Llewellyn dashed into a residence. Llew, inside a mud hut with a door made out of wood and reeds could still see into the yard and witness the carnage taking place.
Just then, the red Cleric of Tahkesis burst out of a hut door in a battle cry and sprinted across the yard with her flaming mace! And just then, a new Cleric of Tahkesis - a half-plated, blond woman with a white dragon tattoo that ran up and down her whole body - began sprinting across the mezzanine towards the fray! The party's spirits began to sink.
Suddenly, there was an arcing blue wave of energy that crashed at the end of the yard and both Gorbash and Tamroohk materialized facing the wrong direction, toward the living quarters of the lizard colony. Because Silence was cast earlier by the green cleric, the entire battle created no noise what so ever. Disoriented, they started looking around. It was a pleasant day. Smelled like smoke though. They wondered where they were and who made these mud hovels - Oh! Tamroohk thought, We must have been taken to the lizard colony, completely unaware of her friends' plight until she turned in the right direction to see the melee with half-a-dozen brigands, the sound of their battle completely muted. Then the dwarves, returned to the field of battle, lurched into action!
Llew saw an opportunity in the sudden appearance of the dwarves. Standing inside one of the mud residences, he was outside of the range of the Silence spell and could sing! He cast a minor illusion that created another armed dwarf in the middle of the marauding pirates. Some actually fell for it and started swinging at the illusion instead of at Siegride.
Meanwhile, having dispatched his own set of pirate groupies, Tolman went old-school Rogue and Climbed Walls to get onto the mezzanine level of the yard. With that vantage point, he could see the flaming red-haired Cleric of Tahkesis rushing across the yard, long-jumping over some wading pools, to rush into battle with Siegride.
Tolman, fast thinking as he is, thought of just the right spell. Concentrating, his mind focused on the area in the yard near Siegride. That area began to glow with a faint light and was magically endowed - the friction removed from the surface of the earth. He cast Grease causing several pirates and the red cleric to (most un-triumphantly) slip and fall to their asses when attempting to rush Siegride!
Still, that didn't seem to deter the newly-arrived white Cleric of Tahkesis who long-jumped down from the mezzanine right into the pitch of battle to take Siegride on! The cultist prepared her mace which extruded this cold, icy substance along the grip and ball of the mace, as her Goddesses' divinity infused the weapon with wicked cold energy! Gleefully, the white Cleric stepped menacingly into battle with the Tempest Cleric of Isthmeira!
But ... just before the white Cleric could start delivering her Goddesses' wrath and punishment ... there was a small matter of Ma'yah. Ma'yah, you see, was backed up in an alcove under the mezzanine. The white cleric leaped right over Ma'yah's head and landed just in front of her, exposing the white Cleric's back entirely to Ma'yah. Ma'yah ... contemplated. She stared at her gleaming dagger, a magical dwarven dagger she obtained back in the Mines. Then she thought of a spell. Magic Missile would work. But that would mean burning through another spell slot. Then she thought of the dagger. Why not use the dagger, she thought? I could stab the white cleric in the back! I'm not a thief but maybe I should have been but maybe I could be, too, I could stab the cleric in the back, I could ...!
Spell. Dagger. Spell. Dagger. Hmmm. What to do? Well, at the gaming table, Allen and Camille reminded Melissa that the dagger was a finesse weapon and her Dexterity modifier could be used in her attack bonus. Gleefully, that only settled it for Melissa. "I'll stab the Cleric!", Melissa exclaimed and started rolling the die while the DM chortled cockily thinking, Pththt Yeah whatever, the white Cleric's AC is 19 and there's no way in Hell that roll will ... "HIT!", Melissa exclaimed ... "Crap," said the DM, erasing hit points ...
... and a magical dagger thrust into the unsuspecting white Cleric's backside! The White Cleric fell to one knee and (albeit she wasn't terribly injured) dramatically screamed in surprise. But, you see, she was in the middle of a Silence spell, so her scream really did nothing, falling on deaf ears, so she mouthed a lot of swearing curse words that would probably not be appropriate for her order ... and continued on her march towards Siegride!
After her attack, Ma'yah thought some more. "I could be a thief, sure, yeah, I could be a thief!" and she successfully Climbed Walls up on to the mezzanine [DM's Note: It just takes a DC 10 Ability Check, folks. Look it up. Jesh.] "Look at me!", she thought, rushing for a door of one of the huts. She burst in to find a weaponless lizard woman freaking out in the back of the hut, and Ma'yah turned and slammed the door behind her.
Meanwhile, Gorbash attempted to help Elan. Frisking her body, Gropebash ... oh, pardon me, Gorbash ... retrieved a vile containing a Elan's healing potion and forced her to drink it, reviving her, just as they were rushed by a crowd of berserkers and pirates!
The red Cleric, trying to get up from the greasy earth, slipped again, and fell to her ass. Tolman watched from above, and in his hand, the dagger he claimed in the spooky White Stands, Silverscale, was vibrating angrily at the red Cleric, alerting Tolman to the fact that this adversary had magical weapons and armor. But he couldn't think about it too long. There was another pirate up on the mezzanine with him firing arrows down on his friends. As a Rogue and not wanting to be outdone by the Magic User, he did a thiefy-backstab against the fellow and took him down.
Just then, the red Cleric - planting her legs firmly into the ground - managed to get up and attack Siegride! The war cleric managed to get one hit in of a multiple-attack, and smacked some avenging fire-goddess wrath into Siegride! Her mace exploded into fire upon the strike and magical flames briefly engulfed Siegride's armor!
As for Siegride, she was trained to brush off such damage with her Heavy Armor Mastery and took less damage than what the red war cleric was intending. Pouty Red Cleric. And then - quite suddenly - the Cleric of Tahkesis got to taste a wee bit of Tempest Cleric wrathiness of Siegride's own, as lightning erupted from the earth and electrocuted her. More Pouty Red Cleric.
Then things started taking a turn for the worse. Casting Chromatic Orb from his hidden vantage position, Llew was able to strike some hard magical damage into the white Cleric engaging Siegride. But that didn't stop her. The white Cleric swung at Siegride, and at first seemed unbalanced and unlikely to hit her, until the War Cleric expended her special ability to add +10 to any weapon strike, sending her own mace square into Siegride's body which then was smacked with ice! Siegride was hit! Hard! And she collapsed to the ground!
On the mezzanine, a berserker rushed up to the door that Ma'yah was hiding behind and ripped it off of its hinges. Ma'yah screamed and stabbed at him with his dagger. "Ah-HA!", she exclaimed, causing a wee scratch. Simply made angry, the berserker (who gets to roll at Advantage) attempted to hit the nearly defenseless Mage trapped in a mud hut and MISSED. He looked confused. Then Ma'yah cut him again. "Ah-HA!", she shouted again, his blood dripping on the floor and running down her hand. "I really like my dagger!" And then the Berserker went wild and attempted to hit her, and, missed, again. Then Ma'yah stabbed him again, and backed out of the mud living quarters to be on the mezzanine.
Ma'yah shouted out to Tolman who was just thirty feet away. Wide-eyed and a little suspiciously-crazy looking, she held it up, dripping gore and ooze down her magician's sleeve. "Look at my dagger!" Tolman frowned and mentally resumed to recalculate the amount of time that it takes magic users to descend into insanity ... and then he saw a potential opening in the fight in the yard below. He leaped from his position!
On the field, the red cleric and white cleric regrouped, backing themselves against each other. They looked magnificent: expert fighters, armored, their shields defending each other, and their maces glistening with divine energy! The sun shown down from the morning sky - an epic silence and slow-motion camera pan - white blinding light glinting off of their armor, helms, and shields! Their wicked dragon tattoos writhed on their flesh! Like two heads of the same dragon, the holy clerics of War prepared to take on more of their adversaries!
The red-haired Cleric of Tahkesis was badly wounded with her battle with Siegride and neither Cleric could cast a Cure Wounds in the zone of Silence that they found themselves in; meanwhile, the blond-haired Cleric of Tahkesis popped a vile and consumed a Potion of Healing of her own, just as Tamroohk rushed up to heal Siegride.
Siegride was coming to her senses as the White Cleric and Red Cleric took turns smacking on Tamroohk, rendering her almost unconscious - but Tamroohk was clever and was trying to pretend to be unconscious! But the Red War Cleric was badly injured from the fight and one of Elan's arrows had just hit her. She was still in the Silence spell and incapable of saving her own life - she was trying to speak, putting her hand up to her throat, trying to get out the words that could heal herself! And it was during this engagement that Tolman rushed up from behind and backstabbed the Red Cleric! The Cleric of Tahkesis fell.
The White Cleric was trying to avoid the slippery Grease spell's area of effect and get out of the silence so that she could cast some spells of her own. Faking unconsciousness, Tamroohk attempted to provide more healing-feeling for Siegride, who was trying to stand to defend against the White Cleric! Another arrow - WHACK! - and Elan dealt some serious damage to the Cleric before she could cast any spells. Siegride re-cast Spirit Guardians and the ethereal, unearthly eels came back into being, eating away at the White Cleric, just as the Green Cleric (who'd tried to make a run for it across the yard was smacked bad by one of Elan's arrows) cast Dispel Magic to get rid of them again.
... a 1 on a Charisma check.
The lizard guards stopped cheering. They dropped their arms. Two even dropped their weapons entirely. They looked about the yard, confused. They weren't quite sure what the human bard was trying to say. Something about tuna and sandwiches and green algae ...
Then, at the gaming table, David threw down a poker chip! A poker chip representing an inspiration point, that would allow him to re-roll! Burning a re-roll, he rolled another Charisma check... a 2. Nuts.
Yep. Still something about green tuna/algae sandwiches. The confused lizard folk guards muddled around, looking at each other, trying to understand the strange tones and sounds coming out of Llew's mouth. Some of the lizard guards looked at each other, shrugged, and pointed at the green cleric, and waved Llewellyn to follow them. They cheered, grabbing their weapons, and as a mass fighting team started across the yard. Llew felt like he finally got through to them and cheered them on from the rear!
Meanwhile, the battle continued for Gorbash who was standing on his own but needed help. Elan whipped out two more arrows. One at the Green Cleric who took too much damage and died, and then at the White Cleric, who suffered a natural 20. Upon impact with the arrow, the White Cleric's body exploded in a mess of blood and gore. The Silence spell snapped out of existence.
Llewellyn's Lizard Army was rabble-rousing across the field, noticed that the Green Cleric had perished, and then started making for the crowd of pirates and berserkers that had surrounded Gorbash. Llew urged them on! Some pirates broke off and tried to take on the Lizards.
... whew! And that's where we stopped! More next week!
R
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