On The Shores of Despair Pt. 2

[veraka]

"I fight because I can, because that's, perhaps, why my heritage is what it is," he paused looking at the stone figures, then said one of the most callous statements that he ever thought of; "and if I die for it, then so be it. I've always kept my mind like that; if my life is to be forfeit, then I'll accept it for what it is. I've never really had anyone special in my life, at least who I would consider a potential mate for the rest of my days."

He raised his helmeted head to the sky, "perhaps that was why my mother left me the way she did; it teaches one how to be hard in life, to accept that which you cannot change, and to act on that which you can."
He let out a small sigh, then re-focused; "Helm, you say, the Watcher. Any particular reason as to the why of that, unless of course, it's personal, then just say so."

Then hearing his name called out loud, Veraka turned to see the source of it; Adian was pointing to something; glancing over, he saw the druid. With a subtle shift in his helmet, he indicated;
[i:39tg1tfp]Her?[/i:39tg1tfp]
((not sure what you were gesturing towards, Adian, so if I'm wrong, potentially again, let me know))

[Zarae Zyne Kilanatlar]

(i think he meant the thing)

Zarae slid off her mount and walked twords the statues Pwdn was helping. she felt the magic working around her. she studied them trying to figure out what they were. she had heard of such things back in her homeland. the 1st matron had perodically used petrified slaves to decorate some areas of her house.
soon they were back to normal(?), piles of concrete in the snow. Zarae had her hand on a dagger as they 'came to life'.

the figures hauled the innkeeper to a room up stairs. they spent 10 minutes having their fun and gaining much information from him. the slow dripping acid had eroded much of his face and the whip opened up his back exposing the underneath tissues. the whole time he tried to call out, but they laughed. the priestess made a sound proof room. finally the leader passed out from the pain. he was healed enough to be brung back before they continued their games.
when enough info was gathered, the priestess raised the kris above him, "take this sacrifice, Queen of Spiders."
it plunged deep into his chest cavity with a sicking sound that made them laugh with esctacy.
when their business was done with him the wizard polymorphed into a halfling and another into a gnome. no one would expect anything out of those races.
the others remained in the room, setting up a scrying device. their previous attempts had been thwarted the last months searching for her. someone was blocking, protecting her. they knew she was closer, it was just a large open area of snow.
the 'halfling' and 'gnome' made their way twords the temple were the priest stood. he sensed them, and that their was something unusual about the two. he turned to greet them as they entered.

[Ra'Sona Races-The-Wind]

As the figures moved, free of the curse now and human once again, the first thing Aidan and Veraka would notice about them is that they were all, spearmen swordsmen and mage alike, deeply evil. Lyon noticed this too, and Pwdn seemed to realise something was horribly amiss.

One of the swordsmen looked at Aidan's group, and waved in feigned greeting. "Well good morning. You know the drill everyone, cut 'em down." They moved quickly and efficiently, the swordsmen lining up to form a shield wall and advancing, and the spearmen backing off to keep the mage safe as he began casting. These were not just regular bandits, the whole setup was made to lure in people capable of restoring them to their original state; they [i:1mak2072]wanted [/i:1mak2072]strong opponents, though for what reason was not immediately obvious. Even so, this was a sizeable force of hardened killers, and working as a group. Pwdn turned back and grabbed onto Lyon, those in the middle of the group were about to come under a lot of fire from the swordsmen on one side and the mage on the other, for now it would be best to get out of the way of at least one of them. With Pwdn forming herself around Lyon, he moved close to Aiden, to guard his offhand. He looked like he'd been sheathed in glass, and Pwdn was too involved countering the wizard's initial spell to talk. "Well this is a novel trap, certainly beats poison darts concealed in the lock of a chest. Looks like Cinder picked out the leader for us, anyway." He'd drawn his sword, and was holding it ready to guard against incoming attacks, with only a few of them there it would be foolish of him to try and risk an attack against a shield wall. "What now?"

[veraka]

"What?" Veraka asked in a low tone, seeing that the people that they had just 'rescued' now were turning on them. Veraka noticed that these men were no ordinary brigands or thieves; they're aura's showed them to be professional murderers.
Then he noticed Zarae near one of the groups as they all began to march toward their little band; "Zarae, get outta there!"

Veraka fumed at what he was witnessing; hearing Lyon's comment, then question, he responded "back-to-back! This is gonna get ugly," pausing, he added, "Frad, hope you're ready to fight, cause either way, that's the only way we're gonna get out of this mess alive." The storm warrior turned to face the spear-men that had formed up around the mage, keeping his shield in front of him and Marala Vharc ready to slice and dice. Putting his back to Adian and Lyon, he turned his helmet toward them and asked, "How resistant are you two to magic?"

Veraka had no doubt that he was going to have to call on the berserker in this battle.

[Zarae Zyne Kilanatlar]

Zarae noticed their quick change in attitude. she shoulda guessed a trap for what it was. she scolded herself as they turned on her group. luckily she hadnt been between them but on the end.
using the abilities she learned, she vanished from sight and dove out of the way of a bolt of lightning. now her eyes shifted to a crimson color from violet they had been when studying the statues. she reached up in the same instance to her sword pendents and detached them. activating the magic two swords appeared in her hand, Moonshadow and Stealthwhisperer. upon coming up, Zarae shadow jumped behind the wizard's flank and readied to strike.

[Ra'Sona Races-The-Wind]

((Going to wait for Aiden before continuing.

What do you think of the idea for this encounter?))

[Adian Novar]

"Very," Adian said, throwing himself against the man he had targeted, knocking him down. His sword was in his hand so fast it seemed as though it was summoned there. "Clear a way to the mage and I can handle him."

In the meantime he'd have to hold his ground...keep the swordsmen away from the more vulnerable members of the group.

"Lady Silverhair, bless our hands that we might defeat our enemies, bless our hearts that we might defeat our fears, bless our souls that we may see you should we fall..."

There was a scarcely visible silvery shield that formed about the party members as Adian called down the blessing of the Dark Maiden. As he did, he pointed at the line of swordsmen who were suddenly alight with purple flames...not actually burning, but bright and highlighting weaknesses in their armor and defenses.

[CinderSuru]

Cinder Mounted still on Meldrinus had moved swiftly to higher ground now, aiming one of her most potentate arrows at one of the Guards that blocked Adian way to the mages.
~Consecrating on a spell to follow her deadly arrow she released both the spell and the arrow and it hit its target in her usual manner dead in the juggler. quickly she reached back for another and almost as fast as the first was in one juggler another was in the juggler of two blocking his was to the mage.~
She looked up at the birds, " i should have had you all cut down for dinner. "
Seeing at the same time a glow of light shimmering above Adien it was the most beautiful light she had ever seen she though where now are thows crafty birds She was desived by their beauty and would not jump to such conclusions agian so readly, her instict was to protect Adian should trouble come to him. Why she had such a protective instinced to him she knew not ~ grummbling to herself ~

[veraka]

((I think I'm gonna have some fun ; but overall, nice work ))
"Good. Lyon, I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt that you are with Pwdn acting as an extra armor around you."
The storm warrior stepped up in front of Adian and Lyon, prepping himself to assault the armored shield wall advancing on them.

Looking over his shoulder to the both of them, he said in a low, but very tactical tone "leave these bastards to me and Frad; kill that mage and fast. If that one asshole is capable of bombarding us from a distance, then this battle will be over by the time we clash with their ranks," he paused, thinking about this fight from every angle; "stick close to their own; if that mage wants any protection, he'll not bombard his own troops, unless he wants to kill himself."

Turning to the dwarf, "you ready to split some craniums open, Frad?"

[Adian Novar]

Adian nodded grimly. This was not at all like the skirmish from before...this was certainly a battle to the death.

The instant Cinder's arrows opened up spaces for him, Adian darted between them with startling speed. He readied his heavy blade to swat aside the spears of the men defending the mage, trusting to his natural magic resistance and the blessings of the Lady to carry him through.

[Zarae Zyne Kilanatlar]

(since i was already heading to the mage, i figured we'd both work him)

Zarae felt the protective magic over her to add to the magic of her own protective shield.
she stealthily neared the mage as Adian also neared him.
Interweaving with uncanny precision, her blade whirred about in perfect complement with each other.
both drows struck, and as her own swords swung to hit the protective shield she suddenly was visible again. her sword weakened his defenses, as the wizard turned on them. he couldnt concentrate on both.
Eyes closed, he sang the arcane words in a long, drawn-out chant, all the while sweeping the air with elaborate gestures. from his hands came a large fireball. but Zarae's Piwafwi and ring protected her from the brunt of the damage, tho the heat was emense. this allowed Adian his chance to strike as Zarae then vanished again from sight as she dove into a rolling tumble.

[Adian Novar]

[i:11bxq2me]"Elghinn plynn dos!"[/i:11bxq2me] Adian sang out as he leaped at the mage. His sword flared with power as he called upon the arm of the Lady to aid his attack. The mage raised his staff in an almost pitiable defense as the bastard sword arced over and down at the wizard. All his training and learning could not save him.

The mage's last sight was of the edge of the blade.

It was one of those slow-motion moments where everything seemed to slow to a crawl. Adian's feet touched the snow-covered ground and gave way an inch under his weight, his sword completing its arc in front of him in a quick, graceful flourish. Behind him the mage's body, robes fluttering, collapsed like a puppet cut from its strings. His knees buckled and he fell back limply to the snow amid a small sprinkling of red rain. The wizard's corpse crunched in the snow as Adian turned on his heels and faced the spearmen.

He could hold them here...protect Zarae's escape...but the bulk of the work was cut out for Veraka and the others.

[CinderSuru]

~Cinders deadly arrows flew at lightning speed~

She watched the mage fall at Adian's hand things were looking defenatly for the better. As she once again drew her bow her aim was on a swordsman moving in Adians direction as Adain was in a dance to protect Zarae as she slay throw the huge swordmen before her. The blood gushed from his throat as her bow sung by sliting it and hiting a unfortunates man in the shoulder. His arm shook in a frenzy, Veraka enthusiastic grin showed his intent as he sunk his great sword into the mans skull.

[Zarae Zyne Kilanatlar]

((oh, the trap idea, this was cool idea. and something unexpected!))

as the wizard laid dead, Zarae quickly made her way to another enemy, one who was more in a position for her to sneak attack. as she appeared her blade's thrust was aimed for a vital area. steathwhisperer cut thru armor, sinew and bone, neatly severing a sword arm. it was followed my moonshadow with a slice diagnal, chest to abdomen. one nearest the now fallen fighter turned to attack her. she twirled the weapons launching the proper parry in time. the drowess stepped back and vanished again, circling around to strike the warrior.

(yes even in Neverwinter nights I did this, attack kill, vanish, attack, kill, vanish. more points for steath attack/back stab)

[veraka]

Finishing off one of the spear-men with a over-head thrust of Marala Vharc, the storm warrior let Cinder, Adian and Zarae deal with the remainder of the mage's guard.

Veraka turned to regard the advancing shield wall of swords-men. Not caring if Frad joined in or not, he charged in, roaring like a proud lion. Swords came up to greet him, but left no more than scratches on his platinum dragon armor.
"Bahamut, you really did me well with this armor," he said beneath his helm as he smashed into the formation, breaching a hole right in the middle.

Slashing up, down, across, the assimar had no qualms in dishing these sha'buir a platter with a one-way ticket to the Hells on it. Shield-smashing on of the sword bearers, Veraka sent him crashing into another of his comrades; spinning around on his heel, the storm warrior brought Marala Vharc up and into the throat of another swordsmen, letting his blood run down the lenght of the blade.
Veraka leaned in to the dying man, "that's for all the innocents you killed; now die," he said through a low growl. Gurgling throaty rasps was all the man was able to respond.