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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 1022794" data-attributes="member: 79">The party had been looking forward to one more shot at Taka and his Guren-tai group being here was just a bonus.  Verick began by trading arrow shots with Taka as Toshiro and Nezu started forward.  The stout cleric cast a bless then charged forward with the ronin dressed as a Lion clan samurai, the ronin holding a katana in one hand and a bladed gauntlet in the other.  Seeing Verick was rapidly losing his archery duel with Taka , Volar conjured up a Stinking Cloud over him and the wing masked wizard.Dropping his bow, Verick readily his katana and wakizashi in a flash and rushed forward, charging recklessly, passing by the more cautious Toshiro and Nezu’s advance.  They met the ronin and cleric head on, a quick spell Paralyzing Nezu while Verick drew blood from the ronin with a slash.    The masked wizard emerged from the Stinking Cloud but had no chance to cast a spell before Volar gestured again, a Stone Wall rising from the earth and surrounding him, but not closing off the top.  Not stopping the wizard but delaying him from casting spells on the party.It only delayed the wizard a few seconds though.  A Fly spell soon had him floating into view.  He considered for a moment using the Stone cylinder as a tower, but didn’t want to take the chance Volar had another wall to close off the top with.  So he flew behind the wall, using it for cover as another fireball fried Nezu, Mindra, Volar, Toshiro and Naga (always staying close to the elf).Verick had agilely avoided the flame blast but he was surrounded by the cleric and the ronin, blood flying as both hacked into him.  And Taka emerged from the mists, arrows once again pin cushioning his old enemy.  Only Mir running into the line of fire to heal him saved the reckless young Lion samurai.  Mindra freed Nezu of the Hold Person spell and at Toshiro’s orders, the twitchy man moved to flank the ronin with Toshiro, two strikes of Toshiro’s honorable weapon doing terrible damage to the dishonorable cur.The cleric moved over quickly to help, healing the ronin, then brandishing his holy symbol of Beshaba as he Cursed Toshiro with weakness.  The wizard battle continued, Volar blasting the flying wizard with a Bolt of Conjuring, hurting him badly and bringing into the fray a celestial hawk to keep up the chase.  The wing masked wizard gestured, hands lifted as energy swirled out toward Volar, turning the elf into a helpless little sheep.  Though a sheep who was hasted and with hooves of striding and springing.With help having caught up with him, Verick charged forward again, leaving the other battle behind as he raced toward Taka.  Who simply faded back into a Fog Bank Volar had summoned earlier, vanishing from view before Verick got too close.A busy Mindra cured Toshiro of the Curse and the battle got ugly as Toshiro scored a critical hit into a gap of the ronin’s armor.  Just as the ronin stabbed the blades of his gauntlet into Toshiro’s side, drawing forth a red spray of blood.  While Nezu was pounded by the cleric, and the wizard hurled another fiery bead that erupted over the party, doing burning damage to everyone, even the cleric, and the innocent sheep standing there trying to mind it’s own business.  The wizard paid a price for that, though.  His concentration had failed for a moment and the hawk got in an attack, for a seemingly insignificant amount of damage.Seeing the battle behind him not going well, Verick raced back, catching the ronin from the side, a well placed slash while Toshiro switched off to help Nezu with the cleric, one again ordering the rat faced man into position for flanking.Mindra caught up to the fast moving sheep long enough to dispel the magic and turn Volar back to his normal, elven self.  The hasted elf wasted no time guzzling down two healing potions, already far to close to death for his comfort.  Taka emerged from the Fog again, having circled through it to a different spot and once again a flurry of arrows raced around and into Verick. One of the arrows was the black feathered type that had laid Toshro low for days recovering.  But as Verick felt the taint in the4 arrow attacking, his Jade Katana heated up, it’s magic helping him fight it off.   The wizard joined in the fun, blasting Verick with a Magic Missile, still ignoring the hawk, which had scored another lucky hit for insignificant damage.Another Magic Missile blasted Toshiro next, but it was too late.  Injured by the fireball and the persistent attacks, the cleric was wounded by a sneaky attack from Nezu, and then one last terrible sweep of Toshiro’s sword separated the man’s head from his body.With Taka back in view, Verick once again raced forward, getting close enough with his charge this time to score one hit with his Jade Katana.  Never one to match a bow against a sword at close range, Taka ran into the mists again.  While Toshiro, Nezu and Mindra combined to overwhelm the ronin, striking him down as well.Mir had her bow out by this point and was starting to shoot at the wizard.  The wing masked wizard gestured and an arrow of acid sailed across the battle field and striking Mir.  Though the wizard had no way of knowing the acid would do little harm to the silver haired Aasimar.  In return Mir fire again from her bow, an arrow catching the wizard perfectly, in mid spell.  Into his throat and out the other side.  The wizard hovered in the air for a moment, then fell, landing with a bone crushing thud that finished him off.[GM Note:  Mir rolled a crit with a great attack roll, and took the wizard to –1.  The hawk that had been attacking had done two points of damage by this point, but the wizard had been ignoring it, since surely a point of damage here and there would make no difference.  My players still remind me of this sometimes.]Volar rushed forward, dispelling the fog cloud and allowing Verick to charge forward toward a surprised Taka.  The surprise didn’t last, though.  The charge came up short and Taka’s ring turned him invisible again.  Volar tried to cut off his retreat from the battlefield with a wall and Mindra scampered up to cast True Sight on Verick.  But it was all too late.  The slippery bowman had escaped them one more time.[GM Note:  As a storyteller I was tempted to let them finally catch Taka.  It felt like the right time.  B ut at the same time, the group knew he used invisibility to escape.  They knew his tactics well enough by now that Volar predicted almost exactly when Taka would run.  And they still had not prepared anything to stop him when he turned invisible.  I’m very sure next time it won’t be so easy, though.]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~With the battle finished, there was a brief rest as Volar looted bodies.  Mir and Mindra healed everyone as much as they could.  But the battle had drained their resources badly and it was decided to not heal everyone up fully.  There was still a lot of fighting left to do.On the left flank, the Cyricians were barely holding on.  If not for the Bloodspeakers, they would already have pulled out of the battle, but the sheer, bloody-minded aggression and terrifying magic of Shahai and the other Maho-tsukai was holding that battle even at the very least.  To the right, the Oni had been dealt with but at great cost.  Viktor’s heavily armed force was pressing forward and as the party watched, the man holding the banner of Toshiro was cut down by Viktor’s fiery great sword.Mir’s familiar had found Shinjo Yuji by this point and they had one quick question for the embattled Unicorn samurai.  “We’re here somewhere behind the center of their line.  What do you need us to do?”“We’re getting ready for a big push.  But I’m worried if we start breaking them, Rodrigo will simply kill the Great Lord’s daughter and try to escape.  I’ll let you know when we are ready to push.  Get yourself in position to attack from behind and try to free O-Hisa when we attack.  You have ten minutes.”  Yuji said to the familiar.Again, there was some fighting to do to get into position.  But only rabble, nothing that could challenge the party like Guren-tai had.  When they had found a good spot for the ambush, what they saw didn’t inspire confidence.  O-Hisa was strapped to a large cross that doubled as a banner.  Halforcs stood around, guarding the area around the banner.  And the huge, halforc-halfogre stood at ready beside the banner, an equally huge naginata held at the ready.  This would take some planning.  And they didn’t have much time.  As the familiar relayed Yuji’s command to attack, the party saw off to the left the Hordeland barbarians finally arriving, hooves thundering as they raced to join forces with the Bloodspeakers.</blockquote>

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