Looking ugly!
OOC: Init order = Danth (21), Kael (
14), Jovik (8), Jokad (5), Nualia (
2 ... ouch!)
Danth dashes nimbly past Jovik and Jokad. In truth, despite his hopes that his words would turn her, he had expected her to pull some trick. Well, it wasn't a trick, more an accident of timing, but her scream, her grimace, and the set of her shoulders told him all he needed to know. This thing had gone beyond diplomacy. Only blood would end this tragic crusade.
He moved fast, keeping his shoulder forward, half crouched. He jumped past the still burning skull that lay on the floor, and reached Nualia before she could react. She was still setting herself, raising her wicked bastard sword ready for the charge, when he reached her. Truly his fast response had shocked even him.
And with her sword raised he saw his opening. His balance wasn't perfect, and his timing was off, but he still
managed to strike in below her guard, piercing the soft unblemished flesh of her right upper arm. .
OOC: Danth attacks and hits for 5hp damage. I also assumed that since he was first in he would move to engage to try and trap her in the room where multiple individuals could attack her.
Kael moved in next. He knew that the battle was best left to his companions, but it was important to block her retreat, so he moved into the room, ushering Mal in behind him, and let off a single sling shot towards Nualia.
The smooth bullet bounced harmlessly off the wall behind her. Kael knew his time might come, though. If his companions fell then he would be ready with his wand, ready to try and stop her leaving this room, even if it was the death of him. Mal growled menacingly at his side.
Jovik watches Danth move ahead of him, and as he hears Kael coming up behind runs forward into the room to engage. He watches Danth move left, and immediately rolls right, moving below Nualia's eye line, between two of the wooden chairs and burning skull, and up beside Nualia. He is standing over the little bubbling pool, one foot submerged. The water is cold, despite the bubbling, and appears to offer no ill effect. It also offers him a good flanking position on the demon-cursed woman, but his thrust is batted easily aside by her horrific left hand.
She spits a curse at him in some monstrous language that sounds twisted and taunted coming from her still beautiful face.
Jokad, slow to awake from the spell he was under, a spell that was little more than trust and hope that perhaps a damaged child could be saved, does what he does best. Simple, forward, attack.
He charges into the room, finding a Shoanti battle cry rise onto his lips. It offers him the strength to attack the woman before him, for despite his knowledge of her acts, despite the hideous transformation she seems to be undergoing, she still strikes him as a lost and damaged girl.
But he is a warrior, and this is what he came here to do.
He hits, HARD. Shearing a large chunk of the armour from her left shoulder, and sending a find spray of blood into the air. She shrieks a short sharp intake, and then attacks.
OOC: She is now at -13hp damage. I rolled a dice to determine which one of the three of you she is going to focus on.
She chose Jokad!!!
Nualia, smarting from the wound inflicted from the shouting barbarian (he thinks it is singing, to everyone else it sounds like rhythmic shouting), turns her fury on him. Like a cornered snake she lunges with her blade.
Not like a snake ... like a demon!
The blade slips through Jokad's defences. Her movement was so fast, so ...
By god the pain.
She pulls the serrated blade free from his gut. Blood sluices from it.
And then she grabs his face with her hideous red claw, holding him before her for a second. She spits on him. He feels the spittle hit, cold. And then the claws release, leaving thick gouged marks on his face.
Jokad is a ragged mess.
His mind is a torrent of pain, but he is still standing, and his weapon is still in his hand, and that is all that matters. The bitch will drop!
OOC:
She hits! A 20 and a 20 for each attack! And while
neither critical was confirmed (if it had been, Jokad may have been negative, but that is the risk you take in this job!), she still causes an astonishing 13hp damage. Hey, it could have been worse. You could have been in negative territory!
OOC: End of round 1. Initiative and actions and rolls for round 2 please. Positions at end of round 1 are shown below.
I usually play the diplomatic, noble guy. It's fun to be the trouble maker. That's why he's CG! I readily accept the blame, it's a self-fulfilling prophesy!
