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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnifex" data-source="post: 628131" data-attributes="member: 227">OOC: IIRC, the battle began with either Mage Armour or Shield up on Burl, and Wyshira's Endure Elements (Fire) on Kale.* * *The attack was begun.Sandar had, in the mere moment before the first projectile soared out of the gloom, a glimpse of movement and was ready, though he had not even the time to shout out to the cultists; they would find out soon enough the danger they were in. As a javelin sped towards his throat he reacted with honed, trained reflexes, both hands flashing forwards to slap together with the missile itself caught between them, its motion stopped dead mere inches from the mans throat. The tattooed monk tossed Wyshira's javelin aside casually as more deadly objects rained down, Sebastion's arrow striking one of the cultists who frantically reached for weapons under the sudden barrage, a brief flash of blood marking the flesh wound inflicted. Ebri's shuriken sliced out as well, one biting into the flesh of a cultist and eliciting a yowl of pain.One of the cultists was first off the mark, rolling out of his chair, and smoothly grabbing his shortbow from the crate by him as he disappeared from sight behind cover. Within moments he reappeared by a wall, casually tossing a small vial away from him as he leapt at the wall.. and stuck to it, clambering up limberly like some sort of grotesquely humanoid spider. Burl kept his magics ready for whenever their spellcasting foe might appear, and he could hear the man at the bottom of those stairs yelling up to the door, "Boss, we're under attack from outside!" Sounds from the other side of that door indicated someone was approaching it even now.The other cultists were moving too, scattering for cover to check their wounds and fire back. One crouched behind the table, bringing his pistol to bear and blasting out a shot at the scurrying figures he could see moving towards the chamber through the shadows outside. The cracking report of the firearm resounded through the place as with a belch of smoke and fire it struck Cord, the old monk sent reeling by the sheer impact of the shot as it tore a chunk out of his flank. A lesser man would have been staggered by the injury but Cord, with his lengthy training in the unyielding stance of the monastic followers of Grumand, found his balance again quickly although the pain was intense. Behind the table, the man struggled with powder and shot to reload.Kale, light on his feet, was already making good his way through the room, closing with cultists and in particular that platform, his quick feet already making distance between himself and the tough old dwarf behind him. Then the door that the stairs and platform gave access to opened.It had been pushed open by whoever was behind that door but they certainly seemed to have no intention of running out into the conflict themselves. Instead words of spellcasting floated out; Burl and Wyshira could both identify it as a summoning spell similar to those that they themselves knew but more powerful than either could cast. And then, out of the room, came a horror.Great leathery wings bore the tumescent body aloft, a multitude of bubbling green orbs that must have been eyes dripping ichor down onto the wood below. Vile serrated teeth pushed out of the jaw-slit that rippled open and closed, while the thing was covered in matt-black worm-like tendrils that twitched spasmodically in irregular movement. Tiny eyes lined the wing-limbs that seemed like they were broken from the bizarre, non-Euclidean angles they made yet bore the monstrosity aloft without any apparent problems. It gibbered and twittered in high-pitched squeaks as it fluttered, its wingspan half again as wide as the height of a normal man, and it wheeled off into the gloom outside the chamber, giggling to itself somewhere above the heads of those out in the darkness.Melisande's hands pulsed with energy as two glowing sapphire bolts lashed out, zipping unerringly to strike the nearest of the cultists. He staggered, virtually knocked senseless by the impact of the magic, reeling dangerously out of cover and into the open. Under cover of the magic strikes Wolf loped forwards, not far behind Kale.Ebri sent more shuriken scything out towards the cultists; even with the cover of boxes and chairs the little toothed disks found their targets easily scoring hit after hit, not doing enough damage to inflict serious injury on their victims but wearing them down further.Kaelos and Garus were already diving for cover, shouts and yells directing the cultists and informing their boss of the situation in the chamber. Both found their way to cover and moved to close on the face-paced Kale, the hiss of longswords being drawn from sheathes filling the rogues ears as they menaced him. Cord was still trying to keep pace with Kale but it was difficult to keep up with the nimble human, especially with the gun shot injury he had suffered.Wyshira hurled another javelin at the tattooed monk, and this time he didn't managed to deflect it, instead grunting in pain as the missile bit into his flesh. Pausing only to yank the weapon out, he moved.It was stunningly graceful, almost art in action, as he leapt towards Cord and vaulted off crates, landing smoothly next to the dwarven monk. The human grinned viciously, seemingly recognising Cord's own movements as those of a fellow martial artist, and fell into his own battle-stance."Your ki is not as strong as mine, old one. You cannot win this battle.""Strength is not the true--" Cord began to say in response. And a fist struck out, palm contacting with the old dwarf with a crunch of cracking bone. Cord reeled, stunned, as the impact hit nerve centres and shocked his very system into immobility. His attacker just grinned more widely.With a hiss an arrow caught the cultist still reeling from Melisande's magic; Sebastion hit him in the throat, and he collapsed with the fletching redecorated in red gore as he gurgled a death rattle.Frustrated for losing his surprise opportunity, the young mercenary extended distance and made all speed toward the balcony. Here, he would have angles to cover Cord and the others, but more importantly, he'd be closer to Cancer, who was behind the upper door, no doubt.Everything was happening so fast, Kale wished he could slow it all down, if only to watch the monk's hypnotic movements in closer detail. But it was an artform wasted in such a scene, what with the cracked cackles and twisted flesh of a creation much more horrid in origin. Kale hadn't gotten to the door fast enough, and Cancer was already pumping out his terror creations. The upper door open, Kaelos and Garus closing, Cord wounded, and a winged beast waiting in the darks, the initiative had already turned against the young mercenary before he'd even taken a shot.Ducking to put a crate between himself and the approaching lackeys, Kale had to hold the line, to support his companions with arrows and angles. In a rush when time was of precious essence, Cancer would just have to wait.She started her prayer on the run, dashing toward the dwarf as fast as she could go. She reached for him and pulled him toward her, turning to place her body between his and his attacker as she completed the healing chant. That's when she noticed the blood pouring from his side; she had no idea where that wound had come from, but she could see that Cord was in much worse shape than she had initially thought.Impatient as she might have been a moment before, now that battle had been joined Mel felt her heart beating down her breastbone in an effort to escape. (Insanely, she hoped no one would oblige it this time.)Although the thing that came out the door did surprise her--and it must be admitted that even in the Manipulation labs she'd never seen anything quite this wrong--it did sort of look like something Pierre would eat.It flew too fast for her to do anything about it at first, instead having aimed her first volley at one of the advancing swordsmen. She did not take the time to survey the damage, but instead turned her gaze upwards into the darkness where the insanely chattering thing blobbed above. The very sound it made set her teeth on edge.Knowing many of her friends could not even see it in the pitch black underbelly of the city, she made it her personal vendetta.The next energy bolt was for it.Half way up the wall, skittering around spider-like in the shadows, the cult agent drew a thin, ivory-coloured arrow from the quiver on his back as he pulled himself up onto a rafter. He nocked his bow, taking careful aim into the melee below; then deciding against firing into the fray and instead readied for a shot at the new wave of attackers coming in out of the darkness. Pulling the string taught, he lined up Sebastion in his sights and let loose, the arrow flaring into brilliant, blue light with a crack akin to that of the pistol.Sebastion felt the crackling arrow punch right through his shoulder, missing anything load-bearing but burning a chunk of flesh as it discharged a tremendous electrical shock into his frame. The rogue high above snickered as he drew another of the arrows and prepared to fire again.Meanwhile, back in the darkness and scanning the gloom above, Burl conjured up a spectral hand; the phantasmal disembodied hand glowed faintly in the dark, the necromancer feeling a little of his life force to power itself.The other remaining cultists moved to counter their attackers. The pistolier frantically poured more powder into his weapon and primed it, all the time Ebri getting closer to him; the other slaver charged Wolf, a cruel axe in hand, and caught the mercenary off-balance with a strike that cut across his chest. Kale hurled his darts at the tattooed monk; one was on course to hit Sandar in the throat but he plucked it out of mid-air at the last moment, while the other scored a true hit but merely inflicted a minor flesh wound on the tough brawler.From the gloom above Melisande the unsettling sound of deformed wings warping reality with their very sweeps sounded and a foul shape dove down at the sorceress; the gibbering flying thing squeaked and slathered at her, its very presence sickening and infused with wrongness as the beast bit at her but she managed to shield the insane monstrosity off just in time to unleash destructive magiks into it, sapphire energy blasting out again to smash into it and elicit more angry chittering and burbling; it kept at her though. Beyond that door from which it had come the sounds of more spellcasting came; the magi amongst the adventurers band could tell that this was another summoning spell, a suspicion confirmed when another monstrosity came through the door.This time it shambled rather than flew, a bear-like, bulky shape. It had bands of writhing tentacles spaced down its torso, and the two clawed hands each had on them a mouth as well that gnashed and dribbled profusely. The beast had no head at all but rather a wide slit full of needle-like teeth, and little eyes poked out from random places in its decomposing flesh as it staggered down the stairs from the platform, leaving a trail of noisome slime in its wake.Wolf struck back against the cultist attacking him; bastard sword gripped in one hand and sahuagin trident in the other, he hacked and stabbed the man and quickly reduced him to a bloodied corpse. Ebri raced quickly through the furniture of the room to attack the pistolier who tried to bring his weapon to bear on this new attacker; the kama struck out, the silvery weapon cutting through the air with wonderful balance and lightness, but apparently with enough weight behind it to still cause serious injury because the blade hit the man in the face and killed him instantly as it plunged through his eye socket.From beyond the other door, the one that nothing had yet issued forth from beyond of, sounds were becoming audible; the sounds of a loud approach, though as yet still the door remained closed.Kaelos and Garus, worried by the deaths of the other cultist warriors but on the other hand encouraged by the steady stream of abominations plunging into the battle, chased after Kale, easily catching the dart-hurling rogue. Steel flashed and flickered as they engaged him with their blades, Kale evading Kaelos but feeling the painful bite of Garus's sword.Cord could feel the pain of the monk's stunning blow receding, feeling returning to his limbs as his muscles freed up from the terrifying lock they had been in. And then, instead of pain he felt as if cool water was rushing through his veins; Wyshira had ran quickly to his side and her healing magic set much of his injuries to rights.The big monk snarled irritably at this nuisance getting in his way. He struck out like a snake, a single punch hitting the priestess who had interposed herself between him and the dwarf, and as if she had been hit by a bolt of thunder through her very skeleton Wyshira felt herself lock up, nerves firing in agony as she found herself as defenceless as Cord had been before this terrible man.Cord could sense something was wrong. This man was a skilled brawler, yes, and probably better than Cord when it came down to simple, brutal melee, but something about him suggested that his mastery and understanding of his ki, his inner strength and wisdom, could not be that great. Yet something about his stunning punches seemed to be not right, as completely infused with ki as they were to reduce first Cord and then Wyshira to helpessness before him. Even the techniques Cord had been trained in to incapacitate with a single strike were not as powerful as was being demonstrated here. How was the monk doing it?Then with a blur of steel Sebastion came at Sandar from the flank. The blades of his double-sword flickered in the dim lantern-light of the scene as the monk turned to face him, blocking one strike with the palm of his hand as he caught the flat of the blade but not quick enough to avoid a second strike from the other end of the weapon hit him fully across the chest. With immense discipline the man bit down on a yell of agony, the ragged wound across his torso spilling crimson blood down his clothes, and prepared to unleash his fury upon the swordsman.</blockquote>

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