Knowing, that she is surrounded and can't stay on the sinking ship for much longer, Amira goes for another spell, trying to evade the beastmen threatening her.
(OOC: Amira will try casting Fly defensively. If she succeeds, she'll take a 5 foot adjustment, one square NW on the map.)
Ormazd the Inscrutable, undoing polymorphs since '03..
Floating gently in the water, Ormazd ponders his next move. He notes a familiar looking rabbit on the ship above him, and with a slight sigh, attempts to break the hold of the magic on his companion.
([Move action]: Remain in place with a Swim check, taking 10; final result 18 as have a +8 to Swim due to possessing a swim speed. [Standard action]: Cast Dispel Magic on Shin'nairo.)
(OOC: If Ormazd cannot see the rabbit, amend my action to casting Evard's Black Tentacles centered on the enemy mage and positioned to catch the spiked chain fighter as well.)
The bay is not a pleasant swimming pool, as Ormaz discovers. Here´s where all the garbage and waste from all the ships and a good part of the city end, and the sorcerer is happy to surface again. Now he has a good view of the enemy, both beastmen and the strange pair in the next ship, but he´s not looking for them... aha, there´s it. Hope Al-Khazad can hold his own... ouch, he doesn´t...
The beastmen do their best to surround Amira and Al-Khazad. With Lightning breath still half-drawn, the captain parries a vicious blow aimed to his legs and sparks fly. A dagger finally finds Amira, but it´s only her rich clothes what suffer. Almost. The enemies above prepare to fall on them when something happens with the rabbit.
It starts bulging. Head and body stretch, ears shrivel, legs burst open. From a torn skin Shin´nairo emerges, confused but definitely wanting to kill something. But even before she has a chance to draw her curved knives, the beastmen are upon her. She kicks a crate to the first´s one face, dodges the attacks from the second, then rolls under him. Turning, the beastman only manages to scratch her armor with an innefective blow. In the air, Razeem dance around the last beastman, claws slashing from the mist.
Same in the boat. Al-Khazad parries an axe at his back and kicks the other beastman, almost through the hole. But the first catches his belt and thrusts with all his strenght: the point of the dagger breaks one of the hidden mail´s links and sinks an inch. The beastman steps back astonished, since that should have killed the captain, who slices back, leaving a trail of lightning in the air but no blood. The thug jumps at one side, leaving him enough space to float to the other and continue pressing, then...
A huge ball of flame flowers in the ship he´s facing. Al-Khazad is distracted for only a second and the beastman uses the time lunges forward and slashes, opening another wound.
* * *
“Ha!” thinks Jagra when the fireball swallows the pair. The flame floats still for a second, before ascending in a whirl of overheated air. Leaving a flaming ship, and two figures. Amira, Ormaz and Jagra see how the armored figure actually suffered very little damage, having jumped inside the boat. The other one make your mouth fall open.
The acid has eaten half of his face, leaving the charred bone exposed. His right hand is a lump of coal, and everything on him is smoldering. He´s about to fall...
Then there´s a flash of light. Quickly as a blink, quickly enough to think you´ve dreamed it new skin and a short beard grow a new face, a new hand sprout from the stump.
He get back solidly to his feet “You´ve been naughty.” Says laughing while flames rise around him. “As you see, yours is a futile effort, don´t you? No? Ah, I sense in you a touch of idiocy, then...” He speaks to the man at his side, who gets a potion and drinks it, before casting a spell.
[OOC: Ormaz swims under the ship´s prow and sees Shin´nairo through the holes, then succesfully casts Dispel Magic; she recovers her natural form and is ready to kick butts and take names.
Amira has no problem casting fly while threatened and raises 5 feet. Since your movement doesn´t get you high enough to actually get out of the hold, you can´t move NW yet.
Amira only:
Now you can see the man with the spiked chain for the first time; for one moments you don´t know what´s wrong with him, but finally you get it; he must come from one of the far lands tainted with evil: in game terms, a fiendish human.
Jagra casts Fireball, dealing 15 hit points to spellcaster et al and sets the ship on fire; the chain wielder saved and actually seems to have suffered very little damage. About the healing, no one never saw something similar: it looks like a contingent heal spell, and it happened twice, healing the acid arrow and fireball damage.
Razeem heals 2 hit points and attacks his beastman, hitting once and dealing 4 points of damage. See OOC post
The beastmen make their moves. #1 (now barely visible) and 3 adjust to flank Al-Khazad and Shin´nairo, then attack. #4 and 2 attack Amira and Razeem. Note that they are using two weapon fighting.
-Razeem is hit once despite the blur effect, but the damage reduction saves it.
-Amira is hit twice, for very low damage (7)
-Shin´nairo manages to avoid being hurt at all.
-Al-Khazad is hit twice, with the off-hand attacks (daggers) but the thugs manage to roll maximum damage in almost all the dice. He´s 32 points down.
The man with the chain gets a potion from the spellcater´s robes and drinks it. Then the mage casts Touch of Idiocy. Moments after, a quasit (Amira recognizes it) appears gliding just over Ormaz and touches him, causing a -3 penalty to all mental scores. See also the OOC thread
"You ugly sons of abominations!" the elven woman screams, and attack the nearest beastman.
In her head, she can still see the creatures as the bunny saw them. They seem to tower over her, but she do not care. With all of her might, she drives her blade towards the nearest opponent.
(OOC: Uriel, yes I made the concentration roll, it was actually very easy for him to make it.
In Al-Khazad´s case, since he has two weapon fighting he could draw two weapons with one move equivalent action, so I´ll assume he already has both in hand. Don´t forget your free 5-foot steps and such, I´ll go to the letter of the post.)
Noticing Al-Khazad getting pummeled by the beastmen, Amira is quick to offer some more healing to him. She floats behind his back and conjures the healing drift once again.
(OOC: Now the 5 foot step NW and cast Cure Serious Wounds on Al-Khazad. Scratch Bestow Curse. Razeem attacked already, I believe.)
Ormaz feels something strange in his head, like too many hashish and wine. Not enough to take him down, though, his priorities are still clear: take that man down (why?) Automatically, he slowly floats in the bay´s waters and casts an spell.
Back in and over the ship the battle continues. Shin´nairo whirls and dance in the narrow remains of the upper deck, drawing one knife and stabbing the beastman on her right. It falls back, and the other takes advantage of her distraction. A dagger shoots, finds air, counterattack. And axe bites the mail, not strong enough to go through the rings, but the elf feels the blow. The other elven knife slashes.
In the hold, Al-Khazad uses his flying to maximum advantage. Floating over the beastmen, turns his attention to the beastman that just wounded him, scimitar flashing. A shower of sparks and slashes light the hold, too many to the beastman poor parrying ability. He tries to counterattack, but Al-Khazad throws his dagger aside with his own and deals the final blow: the blade goes through his neck and his foe falls into the water, bleeding profusely. Swarming him, the other two jumps forward, splashing in the knee-deep water, and one of then only get a cut in the arm from the captain´s ornate dagger. The other one hits Al-Khazad in the elbow, though, and his arm almost go numb despite the excellent mail. Only now is when he realizes that Amira healed him again, a gentle breeze sealed the wounds he took seconds ago.
Back in the burning boat, a horrible mass of black, rubbery tentacles sprout from the wood. They twist, whirl and wildly flail at left and right. The armored man grabs the board and pulls himself out of the area, but the mage is not so lucky and the tentacles wrap around him. They constrict, grab, smash: pieces of wood fly, the mast creaks, crates collapse. You can see how they rip the mage´s robes and two of them compete for his right leg. It snaps with a sickening sound and hangs obviously broken while the mage is shaken right and left.
A second later it´s whole and healthy again. You can´t believe your eyes.
Angrily, the mage utters an incantation and the tentacles dissapear as quickly as they came. He talks to the spiked chain man, who flies away, and advances towards you. Now he´s angry
[OOC: You did well this round, but with a little thinking you can do a lot better.
Amira moves out of reach of the beastmen and heals 27 points of damage to Al-Khazad, bringing him back to 60.
Al-Khazad attacks # 5 with both scimitar and dagger (since I do not find any extra scimitar anywhere) 2 hits with scimitar, 1 of them critical, and one dagger strike, total damage 32. #5 drops mortally wounded, last attack was directed at # 1, who suffers 3 hp of damage.
Shin-nairo draws the kukris (since she had not even the opportunity to do that earlier) and attacks once, dealing 9 damage to beastman # 3.
Razeem heals another 2 hp and makes a full attack, hitting twice (1 critical) and dealing 11 damage.
Ormaz (on autopilot) moves out of the quasit´s range (who´s tiny and doesn´t have reach) and casts Black Tentacles centered on the mage, who´s trapped, but fails to grapple the spiked chain man. The healing effect happens again; it´s nothing that you ever seen or believed possible.
Bad guys go next.
Beastmen attack. #2 contnues attacking Razeem. First attack fails, second is a critical, 4 damage after counting DR.
#3 and 6 attack Shin´nairo, one hit, 15 damage.
#1 and 4 attack Al-Khazad. One axe hit, dealing 13 damage.
Mage tries a (still) spell, and cast it despite the difficult Concentration rolls. The tentacles are dispelled, then moves.
The last guy flies directly towards Jagra (almost 80 feet) and takes cover behind one of the ships.
All of you go again.
Status: Al-Khazad 47 hp/69 max; Amira 37/45; Ormaz 38/47; Shin´nairo 55/70; Ra 14/14; Razeem 26/33, Jagra 53/53. Active spells: Ormaz Shield and alter self (aquatic elf form) -3 to int, wis and cha; Al-Khazad Resist Energy (fire) and Fly effect from armor, Razeem Blur, Amira Fly.
Jagra is 160 feet away from the battle and 80 feet from where the chain guy hides
Amira floats back a little a speaks words of magic. This time she summons forth a friendly wind behind herself and every ally in sight, making all of them move swifter.
(OOC: Amira takes another 5 foot step NW and casts Haste, targeting as many allies as she is able.)
A small half-smile crosses Ormazd's face as the tentacles entrap the mage, but fades as his broken leg miraculously heals. Ormazd raises both eyebrows, his greatest sign of surprise, and begins adjusting his plans.
"That was unusual. Truely the forces of darkness favour our foe."
Ormazd looks around, and, espying the flying warrior with the spiked chain, reaches a decision.
"Ormazd does not think he wishes to be struck by that brute.." mutters the sorcerer. He begins chanting again, targeting a spell at the spiked-chain wielder.
([Full round action]: Cast an Empowered Lightning Bolt at spiked-chain boy. If I can catch the quasit, or indeed any other foes, as well, so much the better.
15d6 electricity damage, Reflex save DC 16 halves. (I've taken the touch of idiocy into account for my DC.))
OOC: Uriel: No, it did not went away. Notice that scorching ray´s rage is Short, 30 feet for a wand, so the last round you did nothing. You can post your actions for this round and the last one; right now, Jagra will Ready an action to cast Scorching Ray at the first enemy that comes within range.
OOC: Uriel: No, it did not went away. Notice that scorching ray´s rage is Short, 30 feet for a wand, so the last round you did nothing. You can post your actions for this round and the last one; right now, Jagra will Ready an action to cast Scorching Ray at the first enemy that comes within range.
OoC:My mistake, sorry. First round cast True Strike, second round fire both hand crossbows, one a +29, the other at +9 at the chain wielder or whoever else presents a target.
