S@squ@tch's Against the Giants - Team Gold

OOC: Oh, yeah... Silly Assassin's Creed...

Determined, Beast-Domoris does the only thing it can---attack viscously, hoping to take the monster down. The bite was particularly nasty....

OOC: Attacking w/ Flank: Bite:AC 34, AC 34, 18hp+1 Con; Talon: AC: 14, 6hp

Knowing a flayer still lurks around them, and knowing his hydra form would be next to useless without light, Morph silently lets the polymorph spell fade and intones a quick word as he falls to the ground. Able to speak once again, he yells out, "We need more light," and he pulls a sunrod from his pack.

[sblock=ooc]Standard action: get rid of polymorph, immediate cast feather fall on self.
move action, pull out sunrod





0: Detect Magicx2, Read magic, ray of frost
1: Feather fallx1, lesser orb of fire, magic missle, ray of clumsiness, grease
2: incendiary slime
3: haste, slow, animate weapon
4: flame whips[/sblock]

Dreadnought, half bent with a gauntlet-like hand raised to his head, slowly comes upright again as he fights his way back through the screaming chaos the strange power had imposed on him. One by one, memories rejoin their brothers to re-establish the proper sequence of events. Gleaming eyes deeply set in an adamantine cowling scan the battlefield and identify a glowing target.

He rushes to attack!

(Targeting nearest illithid he can see)
Attack: 25 (including AP)
Damage: 16
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1596934/
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1596936/ (the AP)

Hudder stands frozen mouth open, eyes bulging mid-bellow.

Round 7 - end of combat

The shadowy form of the last flayer, floating above the campsite, winks out of view, just like the others.

The campsite goes quiet once again. A half-minute later, Darv and Hudder regain their consciousness, and look around to put the pieces together of what happened. The whole experience of losing time was quite unsettling for their consciousness.

The all-consuming pain that has wracked the gith slowly fades, and his sight returns to find the grisly scene before him -- he had heard the sound of Davan's brain being wrenched from his skull, but did not quite know what was actually happening, as he had only heard the stories of such things in his childhood, not so much as experienced it first hand.


OOC: Unless Domoris can somehow reach the flayer/immobilize it by the end of his turn, the last one will plane shift away. If there is something that Domoris wants to try, then I will be happy to change/update.

Morph 34/49 3 nonlethal

Morph walks slowly over to the dead mindflayer. He tries not to look at the form of their cleric, head covered in blood, bone shards from his skull littering the ground. He casts a minor spell, one that would let him detect any magical objects that the mindflayer carries.

[sblock=ooc]Cast detect magic and use my monocle to identify any magic items I find.[/sblock]

[sblock=Morph]
Your magical sight reveals nothing at first, until you peel the creatures cloak away, which exposes the shiny silver metal shirt it wears underneath. You instantly recognize it as a mithral chain shirt. It has an aura of faint abjuration. Nothing else on the creature carries an aura.
[/sblock]

edited to reflect Darv's speech post #516
....GIVE YA INDAGEST... Hudder springs back into action.

Kyber's balls, he mutters surveying the lanscape around him before squatting down next to the cleric's body. Lad never had a chance. Damn'd thing, los'n a priest.

These tha bastards tha got Barak, fer sure., he says surveying the wound.

Rolzup said:

Darv sits on the ground, rubbing his temples and wincing. "That hurt more than seems reasonable," he groans. "I've never felt anything like that before, and would much rather not experience it again. Ever."

He looks up, flinching slightly at the sudden motion. "We need to determine some method of protector ourselves from those accursed things. Or, failing that, of hiding from them. And the quicker, the better."

Click to expand...

Aye. Yer right about that. Hudder off the gnome a hand in getting to his feet.
Shudda put wards 'n alarms around. Amateur mistake.

He looks at Darv. Yer gonna need ta say tha last rites while I strip 'n shroud 'em.

If the gnome looks shaken, he gives him a friendly (bone-jarring) thump. Is' not tha end o' tha world. He died brave 'n in battle. There's something ta be said fer tha' sorta end. You've tha Will no? We'll make sure his folk get his items, so they'll have the most important parta him.

When Hudder discovers there's no will (and that the group has been burying people's magic items with their bodies) he's positively aghast. Tha's no good at all. Yah leave there magic out here in tha jungle 'n those dark savages 'll get it. An' then tha drow'll use it to call back thar souls an' use 'em for 'ideous rites!

Yah canna just leave the items here, they'll be bound fer all eternaty in evviiil weapons 'n used ta murder thar fellas! Tha's how they tha dro make bane weapons!

[sblock=Anyone with decent Knowledge Arcana?]
Drow do bind spirits into equipment, usually elementals. However the idea that the drow bind people's souls into weaponry seems... rather unlikely.
(Unless s@s says otherwise of course).

Of course, convincing Hudder of this fact is... tricky. He has no comprehension of even the most basic rudiments of magical theory. Logical argument falls flat in the face of hyperbole, arm waving, third hand accounts of "some fella wuz killed by his own bother's spirit! me mate ir'Makan was there!" and sheer stubbornness.

So far as Hudder's concerned the second they turn their backs the drow will swoop in, steal the items and bind their comrade's soul in a bane weapon.
[/sblock]

In the face of this crisis Hudder springs into action. First he prepares the body, laying out the cleric's the items on his own cloak and wrapping and shrouding the body. Once the last rites are completed he turns to the items.
He has witnesses (probably Darv and Morph) make a list of the items, binds the bundle up and places a greater glyph of warding on the whole thing. He then wraps it in another blanket and stows it carefully in his pack.
We're gonna need ta make an investigation ta determine who's tha proper recipient. I know Tharask fella specializes in this in Sharn....
[sblock=The Ward]Don't have time to check the rules but if possible the glyph is keyed to"Davan's next of kin". At the very least it's keyed to his racial type (so it'd be human).
He'll make sure the witnesses have a chance to examine the glyph and confirm that it's properly keyed.

He is from a clan of bankers, so everything will be proper and orderly.[/sblock]

Next he announces that Will-bearers need to be designated, and nominates himself (Yah know my reputation as a Kundarak), Darv (a gnome of keen mind 'n good character!) and Morph (everyone knows 'forged are trustworthy!).
Everyone is then "interviewed" about their next of kin (where they live, how to find them), next-next of kin (etc), and next-next-next of kin (etc), which items they're carrying (do they all go to the next of kin, or are they split up, etc), any last words they may have, do they wish for the respective kin to know the details of their demise, etc?

Short of flying away it's almost impossible to put him off, assertions of lack of interest in the process, lack of kin, and so forth only generate a torrent of stories. Everyone who doesn't plug their ears with wax has heard that Hudder's delivered no less'n 13 Wills ta kin in me decades as an adventurer. I canna tell you tha comfort an' closure tha see'n tha objects of tha deceased brings ta those left behind. Dunna mean to sound crude but in some cases tha financial support is also needed. Why one Cyrian fella I traveled wit' come back ta find his wife liv'n in Talenta Plains onnacounta hav'n no place ta go afta tha Mourning. Wit' tha money from selling his rapier they was able ta travel ta Q'barra. Got a letter from her jus' last year, seddled down in Newthrone'n opened up a bakery.

Barring some sort of extreme act by the party (charming Hudder or tying him up) by morning three meticulously copied wills containing the details of each party member are in the possession of three will-bearers.

Morph continues to concentrate on the armor, knowing the power of his monocle would identify the precise magic that is contained within the armor. "Davan deserves a warrior's burial. We can hold his items of magic for return to the temple. I know if I would fall I would want my items returned to where they came, House Cannith if you should know." Morph isn't shy about letting the dwarf know that his alligiances lie with another house.

The warforged continues, eyes flashing with inner light. "There is more at work here than giants, I fear. I may be wrong, but I don't think mindflayers are real common. For one of them to contact our Gith friend, and then attack us on our way to the giants is not a mere coincidence. They might even be behind the attack back in Stormreach."

"Now, I think it would not be wise to stay here. The flayers know where we are and could strike again if we were to stay. I will say that we should move on at least for a day before resting."