Round 29
Irene and Ashnar take off in pursuit of Jezibel, Ashnar still holding his crossbow. Neither can see her at the start of their turns so can't charge or begin spell casting. (Both then, took double moves in the 28th & 29th rounds). Rinaldo tries to stab Jezibel as she darts out of the cave. She's not even looking at him, but somehow contorts her body at the last moment to avoid his thrust. It's uncanny, he thinks, how she could dodge that.
Charlyn sees her run past him, around the hut. Knowing she must come around the other side, he takes a short cut, between the catapault and round hut, to cut her off. Sure enough, he catches her on the other side. Morningstar raised he comes at her. She screams in terror. She dodges dextrously, but his weapon smacks her across the arm painfully (7 pts). She looks pretty badly hurt. "Stop it!" she shrieks. "I'm just gettin away from them flesh eaters!" She continues her run, dropping into a roll to avoid another strike by Charlyn. Charlyn twirls on his heels to get a second swing in before she gets by, but can't quite connect. She dashes on towards the horses. Ashnar, Irene, and Charlyn can see that most of their horses, at least, are still there, pacing nervously or eating grass.
Nurlan manages to twist out of the cold grasp, emerging on his feet slightly closer to Somac than before. Rinaldo picks up his crossbow and sheaths his rapier, taking a position of partial cover in the cave mouth. Tenebrynn, engaged in a ferocious melee with Somac's killer, shoves it away and hacks at it with his pick. It's an awkward swing, with only one hand. He doesn't really expect it to hit, only push his opponent away, but again he feels the weapon guide itself, catching the creature in its small ear-hole, and exiting through it's nose gash, splitting its head and sending black blood and brains over the sand, over Somac's dying body and over the librarian's cloak. Tenebrynn glances up to see two sahaugins in the water directly across the sand from him fire crossbows his direction. He twists aside as one bolt deflects off his magic armor, doing only minor damage. (3 pts).
Tor (NPCed) moves around behind Nurlan's opponent to gain some cover and slashes at it with his chain. Prone, it is unable to avoid the sharp claws of Tor's weapon. Tor is able to swing again as it scrambles to its webbed feet, but this time his weapon finds only sand. The creature keeps its eyes on the bard, and again jumps in to grapple. Nurlan is unable to use his longspear at such close range. (so doens't get an AoO?) He is able to avoid its clumsy attack, as its feet slip in the sand. Two more shoot at Tor, but neither hit. The two more archers on the beach reload.
At this point, everyone feels a bit empty inside, as Nurlan's inspiring song fades from their memory.
HP summary: Irene: full; Charlyn 11/20, Nurlan 4/15, Ashnar 9/11, Rinaldo 9/23, Tenebrynn 6/23, Tor 3/24, Somac: ? but unconscious.
