All of the lizardfolk begin dropping, most especially the ones trying to face off against the girallon. However, a long fight is continuing as reinforcements should be arriving shortly. And what nobody truly wants to think about... eventually they will will have to face off against the ape-creature themselves as well.
[sblock=Encounter A3/4 - Temple Grounds: Round 3]
Initiative Order:
16
Jina
15
Ari
12 Poison Dusks 8-9
10
Khalia
9
Jango
8 Girallon
6
Aern
6
Horatio
3 Blackscales 1-5
10
Rogan
Aern / Horatio / Jango / Khalia: +3 to hit & fear saves (Bless and Inspire Courage) / +2 to damage (Insp. Courage)
Ari / Jina / Rogan: +2 to hit, damage, fear saves (Insp. Courage)
Jina falls from her fighting stance and begins dancing backwards away from the beast. However, she doesn't realize just how long the creature's arms are, and as she turns, one of them reaches out and claws her back.
(AoO vs Jina / *hit* 8 damage / lightly hurt -8 of 37) She yelps in pain but continues to run as her brother's words reach her over the sounds of combat. She nods recognition of their sense, pickw up speed as she races through the jungle, and engages the blackscale that arrived from the north. Her elven blade whizzes through the air, but a stab of lingering pain makes the attack ineffective.
(Charge vs 3 / *miss*)
Ari grins even wider now as the battle weaves through him. With Onyx and Aern both distracting the lizard in front of him, he make a quick savage chop with his sword but the poison dusk lizardfolk dodges incredibly out of the way.
(Attack vs 8 / *miss*) However, with the swing finding no purchase, Ari uses his momentum to slam himself into one of the hapless newcomers-- a welcomed gift from his new armor spikes!
(Attack 9 / *hit* 7 damage / lightly hurt)
The two poison dusks that were attacked by Ari attempt to take him out once and for all. However, both of them are unable to penetrate the monster hunter's strong masterwork armor, and their swords bounce harmlessly off the metal.
(Attack vs Ari / *miss* // Attack vs Ari / *miss*)
The one remaining lizard turns around as he felt an attack come from behind him. He sees the bleeding lizardfolk standing in front of him (the disguised Aern) and he takes a second to wonder if he indeed had been attacked.
Khalia whispers a silent curse as she realizes she's too far from Brother Donovan to heal him this round. But the templar was in trouble, so the archivist has to do something. The young woman not-quite-runs up the path to come closer, then reloads her crossbow for another attack next round.
(stonegod is correct that Hold Person would not work on a blackscale and since Khalia would know this, she won't waste the spell.)
Jango moves through the brush and across the path heading up towards Horatio and now his sister. As he nears the fight, the Khyber's shard in his posession glows and suddenly a power blast of heat fires from the boy's fingertip at the southernmost blackscale. It catches the creature right in the face with a critical shot, and the scaly menace drops to the ground sizzling!
(Cast Empower Scorching Ray vs 3 / *crit* 33 damage / dead)
With Jina having scarpered off, the girallon's only option for someone to attack is the pair of blackscales that moved up behind him. The giant ape turns around and lets out a huge roar of anger, then begins flailing his four arms. The first two claws slam into one of the lizard's face, and once again they rend the features completely off of him, killing him instantly.
(Attack vs 5 / *hit* 8 damage // Attack vs 5 / *hit* 9 damage // Rend attack vs 5 / *hit* 16 damage / dead)
The second pair of claw attacks go right after the second blackscale, and it is pretty much more of the same. Two swings, two hits, a deadly rend, and the second one collapses in a heap of blood.
(Attack vs 5 / *hit* 7 damage // Attack vs 5 / *hit* 7 damage // Rend attack 19 damage / dead)
When the other poison dusk turns to him after his poorly aimed attack last round,
Aern takes a second to consider his options. He quickly improvises a bluff by taking a wild swing at Onyx, making quite sure not to actually come close to hitting the dark companion. However, this bluff is enough to convince the poison dusk that the previous swing was probably a mistake. It turns back around to face off against Ari for next round.
Horatio Donovan grimaces through his pain and takes a step back, swearing. With the elven twins rushing up to help him, it gives him the moment to bang his chestplate and spit out a string of what might be either magical phrases or venomous curses-- or a combination of both. Brother Donovan feels the bruises and throbbing pain quickly subside a bit, and breath comes much more easily into his lungs.
(Cast Cure Moderate Wounds / Heal 18 damage / hurt -15 of 37)
The only remaining blackscale left in melee takes a step back towards the cleric, however this time he is unable to connect with his giant club.
(Attack vs Horatio w/greatclub / *miss*)
The other reinforcements in the area continues to advance on the combat zone, but are still much too far away to engage in hand-to-hand. However, the ones from the northeast do have javelins in their hands and they both aim and throw them at the two elves. Jina is able to duck away, but Jango is not so lucky... he catches the javelin in his right shoulder and sends a stinging pain into his right arm.
(Attack vs Jina w/javelin / *miss* // Attack vs Jango w/javelin / *hit* 6 damage / lightly hurt -6 of 24)
Finally,
Rogan finds himself standing face to face with the girallon... who lets out with a huge roar! He realizes he has two choices... engage the beast, or make a withdrawl move so as to not provoke an opptunistic attack from the girallon. He ponders his choices very quickly.
[/sblock]
Rogan still has to make a new Round 3 action (since his previously stated action has become moot). Everyone else (including him) can now also state their Round 4 actions.
