[AU]Vale of Shadows [IC]

OOC: No worries - I rolled your init for you, and there are several actions that occur first, so...

Init:
Ar-Pharos: 21
Rowlth: 18
Rupert: 18
Opponents: 17
Xen: 12
Kyraelis: 7
Haradoth: 2

Ar-Pharos reacts quickly, his natural protective instincts setting him in motion. He glares at the assembled crowd, and makes it very clear to that anyone approaching the group will have to go through him. Rowlth bends down and grabs a ragged edge rock, brandishing it fericiously.

Rupert traces the rune on his chest, and a shimmer of magical energy coalesces about him, leaving him feeling much more confident, and leaving poor Haradoth standing at the fore of the party.

At that point, the three in front of you begin to advance. The tattooed man mutters a word beneath his breath, and his hands suddenly burst into flame! He grins, and traces a pattern in the air, advancing behind the other two. The faen speaks a word of command, a gleaming sword, seemingly made up entirely of shimmering air, appears in his hand. He grins, and steps up to Ar-Pharos, challenging him. The giant's blow barely misses the Faen, blown off course by the winds buffeting around him, and Ar-Pharos grimaces as the Faen's sword bites into his forearm as he attacks (OOC: Deflection bonus caused the miss, Faen did 4 points of damage on his AoO). The Verrik steps up as well, taking a blow from Rowlth's rock as he does, and swings his pick at Haradoth, striking him soundly in the chest with the spike. Blood spurts from the wound as the pick is ripped out, and the crowd screams in response. (OOC: 6 more points of damage from the pick, totaling 17, which puts him into dying status).

As Xen prepares to act, another rock comes streaking from crowd, but misses him horribly (OOC: Rolled a 1 - see OOC for crit failure rules), and actually striking the Verrik on the temple, opening a bloody gash. The faen winces, and fades back in to the crowd before Kyraelis can call out his warning.

The crowd is getting very agitated at this point - people are calling out for blood, and several smaller fights have started as well as people shove into each other, looking to get a better view. The Tattooed man is grinning and calling out to the crowd as he advances.

(OOC: Just waiting on Xen now).

Gurgle.

dead_radish said:

As Xen prepares to act, another rock comes streaking from crowd, but misses him horribly (OOC: Rolled a 1 - see OOC for crit failure rules), and actually striking the Verrik on the temple, opening a bloody gash. The faen winces, and fades back in to the crowd before Kyraelis can call out his warning.

Click to expand...

OOC: Did you mean the Faen above?

Xen smiles unflinchingly as the rock whizzes by his head. With surprising speed, the Verrik rushes forward towards his racial counterpart who has laid Haradoth low. A few in the crowd gasp as a ghostly black shield appears on Xen's arm, bearing a grinning skull with glowing red eyes, the mark of a Champion of Death. Shield bash (1d4) - Call Shield +1, +1 Damage to the Living

OOC: Nope - the Verrik with the glowy pick that struck Haradoth took the stone to temple. The same one you just charged. One faen is facing off with Ar-Pharos, the Verrik is now engaged with you, the tattooed man is standing behind them both, and the other faen (in the crowd) is now gone.

OOC 2: I'm not actually sure if Call Shield is a free action or a standard, but there's more than enough style there to let you do it anyway.

Xen's charge takes the Verrik by surprise, and his eyes widen as the shield slams into his face. There is a small spark of deep blackness as the shield connects. It opens another large bleeding gash on his forehead, and the Verrik wobbles slightly, but doesn't drop. His eyes do indicate surprise that he has taken such a beating.

As all this occurs, Kyraelis casts his spell behind the tattooed man, who does glance behind him for a moment, but it seems that most of the crowd is either cheering at the top of their lungs or fighting amongst themselves, so he pays it little heed.


Summary of round 1:

Haradoth: Down and dying
Rowlth: Struck Verrik with a rock
Ar-Pharos: Took 4 points of damage.
Xen: Dealt a good blow to the Verrik
Kyraelis: Behind the group, attempted a spell.
Rupert: Protected
Verrik: Heavily wounded and surprised, engaged with Rowlth and Xen.
Tattooed Man: Flamy hands, out of range
Faen with Wind blade: Engaged with Ar-Pharos
Faen with rocks: Unknown

As the first round ends, the crowd is getting more and agitated. Small fights are starting up among the onlookers, and there are clearly some people cheering on either side.

New inits: Rupert: 18
Ar-Pharos: 17
Rowlth: 17
Opponents: 17
Xen: 12
Kyra: 7
Haradoth: 2 (and gurgling)

Rupert rushes forward, yelling at the crowd. "Come on, people, let's get rid of those bullies !" Once he's near the man with burning hands, he mutters a few arcane words and traces a pattern in front of him. Suddenly, an orb of pure darkness envelopes both Rupert and the tattooed man.

OOC : Move action to get within 10 feet of the tattooed man (tumbling if necessary), cast a veil of darkness, spell slots left 3/0. If he is to far away, Rupert will use a diminished version of the spell instead, near Ar-Pharos and the faen.

Haradoth drools blood on someone's ankle. If he is in darkness, he uses Sense the Unseen to drool blood on someone's ankles. All in all, he focuses on getting ankles bloody.

This is, of course, entirely on a sub-subconscious level, seeing that conscious thought eludes him at the moment. However, he feels certain that dreaming of other asexual creatures in a very asexual manner is not inappropriate behavior in a life and death situation where death seems the path of least resistance.

Consider this stream of unconsciousness.

Otherwise, on 2: gurgle as move action and bleed as a standard action. Does bleeding invoke an AoO?

Ar-Pharos will continue in his pugilistic exploits.

Kyraelis stands by nervously, hiding behind his bigger companions watching the chaos erupting around him. With no muscle to contribute to the melee he instead focuses on the crowds looking for anything that stands out of any significance beyond the fighting and shouting [hah!]

Rowlth continues to bludgeon the verrick. "Can someone stablize that poor bastard? He askes of the downed mojh.

Rupert steps to the side, his eyes focused in concentration, his lips whispering words of power. As he does so, a globe of darkness drops down, covering Rupert and the Tattooed man, who growls in annoyance. There crowd cheers loudly again.

Ar-Pharos glares down at the small faen, and swings a mighty blow at him. But the faen's size and the buffeting winds distract him, and the faen slides nimbly aside, but his actions cause his return strike (AoO) to miss as well.

Rowlth cracks the Verrik across the skull, hitting him again on the temple. This time the Verrik's eyes go blank, and he slumps to the ground, bleeding. Another man flies out of the crowd to land atop the verrik, and both of them lie there unconcious and bleeding.

As the Verrik falls, the faen grimaces, and slides around Ar-Pharos' guard, striking him with the strange blade he wields, but the blow is weak, as he expected from such a small foe (4 damage).

There are sounds from within the darkness, and Rupert senses the Tattooed man coming closer. He feels the heat from the flames on his hand, and the man gets a hand on him. Rupert nearly manages to twist aside in the darkness, but the man finally manages to wrestle the Runethane to the ground (successful intuit direction (dc 20) to find you (which surprised me), successful attack, barely made the 50% miss chance).

Kyraelis keeps himself distant from the fight, and surveys the ramparts, where he sees a small squadron of sprytes buzzing down from the tower, presumably in the direction of the brawl (an amazing spot roll).