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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 1336" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #12 (Part IV)Ratchis forced himself to control his breathing and spoke words calling to his goddess, Nephthys, to grant him her Divine Favor and the stood, the flames licking at his clothing. Kazrack leapt from the landing to the right onto a crate he thought would hold his weight, but the crunching of wood as one leg painfully burst through stranding him there proved him wrong. He cried out from the painful split, while Martin and Jeremy moved onto the landing. Ratchis ran off the steps, patting his clothes out, and could see now that a lantern light could be seen coming from the next room. Kazrack pulled his leg free and rolled off the crate. Martin and Jeremy came down the steps, for the fire had flared up suddenly and then died down. Ratchis pushed a crate before him into the room to act as a shield, but then came round the left side of it deeper into the L-shaped room. There he could see Markle and the hawk-faced man he had argued with earlier standing on either side of a small dark archway. Martin came up behind Karack who was now ducked behind the box, waiting for someone to move it. “Devon’s in there!” said Kazrack. “Who?” asked Martin. Markle moved cautiously forward, holding a short sword in his right hand. With his left he reached into a small red bag on his belt and pulled out what appeared to be a ball of fur. He threw it sidearm at Ratchis, and as it tumbled towards him it grew and grew, taking the form of a large wolf that landed before the large half-orc and bit at him, but missed. “Damn, Jana!” cried Markle. “I’ll choose someone better next time.” Martin moved into the room, and he and Kazrack felt a wave of dizziness come over them, but they shook it off. Ratchis hurled a javelin at Markle, and the small handsome man dodged enough to make it strike his studded leather armor at an awkward angle, but he could feel the bruise start to swell. Martin spoke an arcane word and three small globes of light began to dance around the wolf’s head. Jeremy leapt over Kazrack’s head onto the crate, but felt the sharp pain of a blow to his rear right flank. Turning, he saw Devon had emerged from the darkness of the other corner in this part of the room. Kazrack moved around the box, and fired his crossbow at Markle and missed. The wolf seeing him more open took a nip at the dwarf and missed, just as he felt another spell begin to come over him, but fail. Ratchis pulled a dagger to go along with his drawn short sword, and moved to attack the wolf, which was too wile for him. The lights moved from the wolf which seemed to ignore them to circle Devon’s head, he was taken aback, and the spray of bright colors that followed from Martin sent him reeling. This gave Jeremy an opening which he exploited, drawing blood with both his blades. The wolf continued to bite at Kazrack, but his armor proved too strong for the animal’s teeth to puncture. Markle charged at the dwarf, stabbing with his short sword, but the dwarf parried the blow, impressively displaying skill at keeping both foes at bay. Again, Kazrack felt another spell wash over him to no avail. Ratchis tried to take advantage of the wolf’s distraction with Kazrack, but both is blows went wide. The flips flipped back over to Marke’s head, but he ignored them, as Martin moved over to strike a blow against the stunned and blinded Devon’s shoulder with his staff. Suddenly, Devon’s head cocked, and as Jeremy’s longsword came down for what would have been a killing blow, Devon parried it with his cutlass, but winced as the short sword bit him. He disengaged from combat. Kazrack, Markle and the wolf, all struggled with each other, but only Markle’s blade found purchase, causinf the dwarf to spit. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to mind your own business,” he said. “Really unfortunate for both our parties.” From the corner of his eye, Ratchis could see the hawk-faced man tracing something in red on the wall behind him. But there was nothing he could except stab forward with a deep blow into the wolf’s haunch that made it yelp pathetically. Martin the Green twiddled his fingers in Markle’s direction, but he shrugged off the daze effect, and continued to fight. Jeremy turned and went to finish the wolf, but missed as Devon came swinging wildly at the Neergaardian. “I may not be able to see, but I can still getcha,” he said. More blows were traded, Markle felt the bite of Kazrack’s polearm, but the dwarf felt both the wolf’s teeth and Markle’s blade. Kazrack staggered, but kept his feet. From the other side of the room the hawk-faced man was heard to declare, “Come from the fiendish pit!” The circle the man drew on the wall burst into bright flame and from it emerged a red hawk, who’s very feathers flicker like flame, and filled the room with a sulfurous smell. It flew right into Ratchis’ face, heat seeming to emanate from it. Ratchis slashed at the bird with his knife as he made a blind stab at the wolf. The bird dodged, but the sword found purchase in the wolf, and with a howl it slumped and disappeared. Martin came over and took a swing at the hawk with his staff, but the bird was too quick, screeching an unearthly screech as it dove and fluttered. Devon and Jeremy continued to struggle with each other, now that Devon had recovered his bearings and vision. Kazrack desperately tried to get a more solid blow in on Markle, who was looking gravely wounded, but he was too quick and skilled. The warlock in the corner of the room moved into position and fired a ray of green light at Jeremy, but the ray went wide. “Why must you do this?’ asked Markle. “Why don’t we stop this now? We go and you go, and forget about the whole thing?” “Do you expect us to forget all those guards you killed?” Ratchis replied, coming at Markle with a flurry of blows, even as he ducked out of the way of the fiendish hawk’s attack. Markle had no response, but was hard pressed to block the attacks, feeling the cut of Ratchis long knife again. Martin continued to swing at the hawk and continued to miss, being over-cautious about striking Kazrack or Ratchis by accident. Devon and Jeremy continued to trade parries and blows, and the blood ran down their armor in bright gouts. Jeremy noticed something and his eyes went wide open, “Devon isn’t human!” he cried. Devon only smiled. Ignoring Jeremy, Kazrack found the opening he needed and a hard blow to the hip, sent Markle down into an unconscious heap. The warlock fired another green ray, this time striking Ratchis, but the Friar of Nephthys shook off the effect. “Martin, bind Markle,” said Ratchis, moving over to where Jeremy and Devon struggled. The fiendish hawk tried to slow the large man’s progress, but failed. Ratchis delivered two strong blows to Devon. Before Devon could react to having two opponents Jeremy followed up with two strong blows of his own, and the one who had always been a thorn in their side dropped to the ground. “I surrender!” cried the Warlock, dropping to his knees. “Call off the hawk!” cried Kazrack, who was still struggling with it. With a word from the warlock, it disappeared in a sulfurous “poof!” Martin and Ratchis moved to stabilize Devon and Markle, while Kazrack covered the warlock. “Make even the slightest gesture I interpret as a spell and I will skewer you,” said the dwarf. The two rogues looked as if their wounds had already stopped any serious bleeding. Jeremy pointed to Devon, “I saw his wounds healing of their own accord!” End of Session #12</blockquote>

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