(Casual D&D IV) A Knight for a Pawn

Oliver's frustration spikes as he makes a grab for the twisting orange bird and it writhes out from under him. His stomach lurches as the leap carries him past the point of impact that he expected and down to the rocks below... His eyes widen and his mind blanks as his body begins preparing itself for impact without the help of any higher thought. He hits and cries out as his body rolls and his battered leg and side take the impact. He jabs his feet down, trying to control the skid and uses his downward momentum to right himself and stand. Pain flares and dims his vision as he comes upright, blades in his hands. He pitches backwards over Vespers as the last of his momentum carries him to the wounded animal. Vespers barely groans as Oliver tumbles over him.

"Vespers..." Oliver murmurs. The bolt arcs down from the enraged arrowhawk. Oliver screams and suddenly sounds are all distant. He drops to his knees, swords clattering onto the rocks. Xiao's face looks down, Oliver can see the concern painted on the young man's face. He flops forward onto the downed horse's weakly heaving chest. His head is turned and he can see down Vesper's neck toward the horizon. The surf crashes in, carrying foam and seaweed. The wind rises. The sky darkens. The sounds of his comrades fighting and falling are distant. Vesper's scared, rolling eyes fill Oliver's vision. He feels the horse's fear. He murmurs to it as the darkness of the clouds spreads out and fills the landscape and all that isn't just in front of him. He murmurs to the horse, gnarled fingers trying to pat the beast's great neck. The old man's eyes are damp. The darkness grows. And in it a distant flare of white. He sighs. So, the end. The coming darkness fills him with a strange sense of relief. Blackness is complete. And now the whiteness grows... and grows. "Take... care of... Fendric," he murmurs and the whiteness is upon him. Xiao sees a flash, Oliver goes rigid, and then collapses again onto the horse. Still and unmoving.

OOC: Oh... poor, poor Oliver. That was gonna be so cool. Let's see if he can tumble his way out of Certain Doom. How does non-lethal damage work? Oh... it could very well BE Certain Doom. And nothing to show for it! Curses!

Tumble: 8 + 11 = 19

It would be fitting for Oliver to die reverting back to his baser Arena instincts. He should never have revisited that part of his life...

Stabilization rolls start next round.

OOC: daughter asleep on my lap, can't type much

attack big bird 16,15,22
dmg 6,5,7

Only the last of Raven's three arrows connects with the larger bird. It still does not appear to be too close to falling.

Tatlock lets loose his sling again, but his release is off and the bullet clutters to the rocks only a few feet away from him. Nurthk's two arrows make it a bit farther away, but are pulled far from their target by the wind.

Oliver crawls toward the horses, injured by fall and bolt. He sees no sign of life from either. (They've been motionless since the tidal wave hit; I probably should have reiterated that when I saw you mention "Vesper's wailing" in the previous post. Obviously this makes some difference in your chosen action, depending on Oliver's hp status. Nonlethal damage should be tracked differently from the usual lethal damage, and not directly subtracted from hit points. If nonlethal damage is in excess of your hp remaining, you fall unconscious; so, for instance, if Oliver has 6 or less real hit points remaining after the bird's bolt, he would be unconscious due to the nonlethal damage from the fall, but he would not be bleeding out unless his actual hit points were less than zero. Also, if he's below 0 in terms of real hit points, the nonlethal won't have any bearing at all, although it should be tracked as it may make a difference once he gets healing.)

Cylantro, dazed and struggling, invokes the power of her wand one last time; even the great green light from that seems hazy and distant. She maintains consciousness long enough to see the bird tremble and fall from the sky, and to hear it crash down beside her, but that sound seems to come from miles away...

Round 8
24 Raven
23 Tatlock
22 Nurthk
21 Oliver
20 Cylantro
17 Hiritus
12 Arrowhawks
5 Xiao
3 Fendric

[An edit: Fendric's heal spell was the actual spell, and not a spontaneous Cast. And let me be the first to apologize in advance for how sloppily my guys are fighting.]

Hiritus grimaces and stifles a cry at the pain of the bite.

As Fendric makes his way underneath the carcass, he sees Cylantro, then Oliver fall. Once underneath, he hears Hiritus cry out.

"No!"

A tear escapes his eye, and as he peeks out from underneath the carcass in the direction of his comrade, his hands once again stray toward his holy symbol. At the completion of his spell, 2 more hippogriffs stream upward toward the large arrowhawk, bracketing it, and tear into it.

[Fendric: casts Summon Monster IV. 1d3 yields 2 Celestial Hippogriffs for 7 rounds.]

Celestial Hippogriff #1 (behind large arrowhawk):

Claws: Hit AC29 (natural 20: threat roll - 21) for 6 (non-critical) or 20 (critical) damage, and AC19 for 5 damage.

Bite: Hits AC22 for 9 damage.

Celestial Hippogriff #2 (between large arrowhawk and Hiritus, directly in front of it):

Claws: Hit AC24 for 8 damage, and AC17 for 5 damage.

Bite: Misses (AC 7).

Fendric decides that hiding is not an option, and moves back behind Hiritus.

Hiritus resumes his fighting stance atop Justice, with an action readied in case an arrowhawk should attempt to close with him.

[Edit: to finish up Hiritus' action in the order that it makes sense, and to mention that the hippogriffs are poised for AOO at +9/d6+4 each should the big one attempt to dive at Hiritus again.]

Xiao Yu, male human monk.

--- ROUND 8 ---

Xiao growls something unintelligable when he reaches Oliver. Xiao checks to see if Oliver is still breathing.

"Xiao is here Oliver," he says, somewhat uslessly. He adds, not really sure if Oliver can hear, "Do you have drink for healing?"

Keeping one eye on the birds as much as is possible, Xiao does anything necessary to make Oliver safer. Xiao glaces at the gear on the horses and any lying around on the ground, looking for a weapon he can use and something to help Oliver.

- ooc -
If Oliver is unconscious, Xiao will stay with him. If Xiao can see a ranged weapon around (didn't Oliver have a crossbow?) Xiao will grab that.

Cylantro : Female Human

Cylantro lies unconscious... Meanwhile, Ginger trots over to her companion's side and sniffs her. Oregano just stands in place at the moment.

OOC: Trying to stabilize, rolling 37 on 1d100 yields a failure; -1 hit points.

Raven, uninjured machinegunner

"C'mon, c'mon, you flying heap of ..... Oh Bugger." Raven curses as he sees two of his friends go down. He keeps up the missile barrage at the largest target.

OOC: anyone else keep having probs with invisiblecastle?
Attack : 26, 24, 16
Dmg 11,6,4

Nurthk grits his teeth, undoing harm wasn't his area of expertise, and loosed another couple of arrows at the bird-like entity.

More misses.

Round 8, and most of Round 9!

Hiritus marks his sword to the sky, prepared to attack should the arrowhawk strike again.

Seeing this, his opponent (#1) instead fires another bolt, putting some distance between it and Raven as it goes. (Ignored since Hiritus' resistance is greater than the max damage.)

The other remaining arrowhawk (#3) holds its position, sending a bolt at Xiao. (Xiao: Attack 21 touch, Damage 14) (Also, retcon: Since Oliver was unconscious after his fall, Xiao would have been the bird's target last round, so take that roll and its 4 damage into account as well.)

Xiao heads down to Oliver, checking the old fellow's status (still breathing, no big bleeding) before grabbing his crossbow and pointing it upward.

Fendric steps out beside Hiritus, and begins the summoning of the hippogriffs. (Note: They're pictured on map since it wasn't until after editing that I noticed the casting time was one round, not one action.

As the wind increases, and a patter of rain begins to trace the air around the group, (-8 ranged attacks) the men in the yellow scarves advance to send their first volley raining out over the group. They seem to be aiming at the birds, but the arrows and bolts disperse wildly in the wind, finding no targets whatsoever.

Raven lets loose with three shots of his own; his first two shots is brilliant, riding the wind in wide curves before finding their target; only the first of the two, however, finds its way through the mat of thick feathers which guards the thing's flesh.

Neither Tatlock nor Nurthk is able to accomplish the same. Oliver and Cylantro remain unconscious.

The large bird (#1) angles around now that Fendric is available to strike with its bolt. (Fendric: Attack 28 touch, Damage 11) Hiritus moves to try to intervene, protecting his ally as the spell is cast. (Trying to measure Hiritus' readied action and other priorities here, he can try to intercept the bolt with his sword, taking the damage himself. Would require an attack roll, DC 28. If not, Fendric has a concentration check DC 21 to make to complete his spell.))

The other fires down upon Xiao. (Xiao: Attack 9 touch, Damage 13)


Round 9
24 Raven
23 Tatlock
22 Nurthk
21 Oliver
20 Cylantro
17 Hiritus
12 Arrowhawks
5 Xiao
3 Fendric

Cylantro : Female Human

Cylantro lies unconscious... Meanwhile, Ginger hunkers down next to her companion, trying keep from being blown away by the wind. Oregano is notibly disturbed by the strong winds as he steps back and forth as if confused.

OOC: Trying to stabilize, rolling 94 on 1d100 yields a success; no further damage; stable at -2. Whew!