Post by Dead Greyhawk on Mar 8, 2008 13:02:27 GMT -5
Raven turns to the others, finds Jasper, and sends him to go gather Antonus. "Make certain your little playmates don't gnaw on him, ok?" he commands. Jasper scampers away, running up the stairs.
Dell peers out the doorway into an internal courtyard. The walls of the castle surround it, and a parapet lines the walls, providing covered passage along the edges of the courtyard. The middle of the courtyard contains a large fountain, now more a pool of water covered in green algae. A single door at the base of the tower marks the only entrance to it. Arrow slits dot the tower walls, spiraling upwards and marking the location of a stairwell. "Okay, what do we have for opposition remaining in the castle? By my assessment, we've got one rakshasa leader, a bugbear shaman, a couple of bugbear leaders and a couple squads of bugbear troops - maybe two dozen? Also the two trolls guarding the castle entrance - did they head for the tower also? I didn't get a good look, as I was very busy not falling to my death," asks Dell. Adrienne nods her assent; the trolls were scrabbling at the gates when she flew over to the rooftop. They must be inside by now. "The tower looks pretty straightforward; we do a frontal assault from the big hitters, knock down whatever defenses they've rigged in the time we give them, and kill them all," directs Dell, as he scribbles a diagram in the dirt and blood on the floor. "If you want to get fancy, we can send some people up to the roof to fight their way down, and meet in the middle."
"A whole bunch of bugbears fled before us," says Otto, grinning. "I don't think they expected to get attacked from above.
"Was it a bugbear shaman or an ogre shaman? It was a big shaman," digresses Raven for a moment. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter. Anyway, Hugh's prayers should protect us as we charge the tower. Winthrop, use the wand of steam to create a fog over the courtyard. We'll assault the door and use the tuning fork to bust it open. Al and Otto are healthiest; they take the front. Diego and I will support you. We'll just use brute force to kill everything in sight."
Otto hesitates for a moment. "Is Pfiffwin around?" he asks. Adrienne nods her agreement. She carried the gnome over the wall and dropped him within the castle. No one has seen him since though. "He was going to try dropping darkness stones into the arrow slits. That way we can move about the courtyard freely, and they can't see what is going on," says Otto. "We can let the confusion soften them up for a few minutes as they attack anything they bump into. Winthrop could poke the wand of steam through an arrow slit and roast any survivor." The others look out at the tower with steam in their eyes. The arrowslits are not easily accessible, though Winthrop could fly up to one of them if he enchanted himself so.
Antonus, who has arrived in time to hear the last of the conversation, chimes in, "With all the tunnels under the castle, it seems likely that there is similar access to the lower, underground levels through the tower. I daresay now is not the time to start over-thinking things. We tore through the keep and slaughtered all the humanoids with ease; the tower shouldn't be a problem." Antonus looks pensive for a moment. "After we capture the castle, we should remember there's also still those slaves yet to be freed," he says. "Toiling for evil, far beneath the surface! Woe is them!" Antonus looks almost teary-eyed for a moment, much to everyone else's bewilderment.
"We can't wait for Pfiffwin to arrive," says Raven. "We have momentum and must use it."
"I think the rakshakalaka may be low on or out of mana. A magical obscurement in the courtyard will provide adequate cover, even if the creature can see clearly through it. Just as a precaution, we can send out Diego first; his shield should protect him from any spells fired at him," muses Dell, ignoring Raven's agitation. Diego lets out a bark of incredulous laughter at the suggestion. "In any case, I think it may be useful to send a team downstairs to the octagon room. It's doubtful that the bugbears are all charging into the tower to a dead end. So there's going to be a rear guard, and the main force will head downstairs, to either flank us, or run away. If the octagon room is central to the lower floors, they may have to pass through there on their way to the exit. The roshakakhan, at least, will be heading that way to either hide in its room, retrieve its treasure, or get its mate for reinforcement." Antonus chuckles at the mangling of the rakshasa's name.
"No! No splitting the Company," fumes Raven. "We charge the tower and kill them. Think less; kill more. Let's go." Otto is suitably impressed, and he leads the others out of the castle across the courtyard.
As the Company dashes out of the castle, they come under withering crossbow bolt fire from the arrow slits in the tower. Winthrop's wards turn a number of them, but some of the bolts find flesh. The Company scampers under the parapet surrounding the courtyard, gaining both cover from the archery and a path to reach the door at the base of the tower. The Company makes a beeline to the door, Otto in the lead and preparing to knock the door in. Otto slams his body against the door, and it gives a resounding thud. The door is definitely barred and possibly magically reinforced as well. "Winthrop! Get this door open!" yells Otto as more bolts skitter and ricochet off the paving stones around and near the Company.
A small dark shape, wispy in nature in the bright sunlight, almost wraith-like in appearance, writhes out of a small space at the base of the tower. It turns into a gnome, a certain gnome known as Pfiffwin. While the enemy archers continue to try to make pincushions out of the Company, he focuses his concentration and his strange adaptive magics on himself. Small, ungainly wings grow out of his back. With a few tentative flaps, he get the motion down correct, and up into the air he sails. He flaps towards the nearest of arrow slits and is much surprised when he comes face to face with a frightfully ugly bugbear. "Eeek!" he cries, as he lobs a light-consuming stone through the slit, filling that floor of the tower with darkness. Crossbow bolts fly past him, much too close for comfort, and so he flaps closer to the wall, planning to repeat his action at the next higher arrowslit.
Down below, Winthrop recognizes the danger of being exposed in the courtyard. Already he can hear the sounds of spell casting coming from within the tower. Not only will the Company be slowly whittled down by the random successful hit by crossbow bolt, but the bugbears inside will be further fortified by their shamans. Not having prepared door-opening enchantments, Winthrop falls back on the tuning fork. Carefully, he draws it forth from its pouch, and he points it at the door. "Here goes!" he cries, as he strikes it sharply on the wall and directs its tines towards the door. Waves of high-pitched, barely audible sound come from the tuning fork, striking the door and wall. The door buckles under the stress and strain, the tuning fork doing something to the structure of the door. It does not appear that it will be enough, until Otto launches himself bodily into the door again. With a great cracking sound, the door ruptures and breaks open.
Beyond the door is a large round room. The room has several beds in it, all of which are turned on their edges and are being used as barricades. Behind the beds crouch several bugbear archers, who open fire on Winthrop and Otto. Winthrop's wards hold, and he ignores the bolts bouncing from around his frame. With curt syllables and sharp gestures, he summons fire to fill the entire floor of the tower, but, surprisingly, the bugbears, crouched behind their barricades, weather the fiery storm.
Winthrop frowns in consternation as an inhuman voice chants arcane syllables behind him. Otto seems to be moving as if in treacle, much to Winthrop's surprise. Normally, the quick-moving Otto would be right in among the enemy, but he seems to hesitate, as if surprisingly unwilling to advance. "Don't head in," says Winthrop, assuming that Otto will follow his advice. Winthrop thrusts his other arm forward and levels the wand at the bugbears. A gout of hot, wet steam jets from the end of the wand, almost completely filling the room. The bugbears duck down behind their barricades again, but the seeping steam rolls over the top of them and drops down behind. While not exposed to the initial jets, the moisture still scalds them badly, several falling over.
The sound of a cat fight makes Winthrop turn around. Jasper, moving at inhuman speed, slashes with his halberd at a large feline beast, looking to those who fought Maya distinctly like a rakshasa. His halberd connects, causing the rakshasa to mewl in pain, and fly up into the air! The large feline roars at the Company, "Prreti maarrat!" Lightning lances down from its outstretched talons, filling the air around the Company, felling Grizela.
Diego turns his attention to the creature, shooting at it rather than returning fire at the arrow slits, but Raven calls out to him to stop. "It needs magical weapons to hit it!" cries Raven, as Jasper bolts at superhuman speed away from the Company and runs back into the castle. Jasper is no coward, and his abandonment of the Company is perplexing at best.
Jasper runs at his best speed through the blood and gore, over the remains of the birdbears, the bugbears, and the jackalmen, up through the castle. "Must put one foot in front of the other," he repeats to himself in his head. "All journeys begin with a single step. All paths are a road to somewhere. In with the good air, out with the bad air." Dodging past the closed door that leads to the chickens, he tosses his halberd up through the open trapdoor and then quickly follows it. From the top of the castle, he can see the tower where the bugbears have holed up. A small form with heavily flapping wings, flutters from arrow slit to arrow slit tossing stones through them. The slits darken and then quickly lighten again as dueling magics take places in disorienting strobes. Almost directly opposite him, the rakshasa, a bulky tiger-man whose tail flicks from side to side, floats in the middle of the courtyard, staring intently downwards.
"Chrowl kshati!" it snarls, throwing an expanding orb of fire down on the scattering Company below. Adrienne slowly rises up off the ground, burnt and scorched and heading towards the rakshasa. She flies oddly slowly and only creeps towards the rakshasa, who hovers easily in the air.
Jasper eyes the distance from the top of the roof to the rakshasa. He has never leaped such a distance before. The rakshasa also hovers over the middle of the courtyard, over the water-filled, but defunct, fountain. If the rakshasa was closer to the castle, the tower, or the curtain wall, Jasper would be more confident that he could use them to slow his fall, should he miss. "Fear is the mind killer," recites Jasper in his head, as he backs across the castle roof. "Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather." With a burst of focused effort Jasper runs forward and, at the very last moment, kicks off the roof, trying to tackle the rakshasa raining death and destruction down on his fellows. He stretches and strains, trying to swing his halberd to cover the last few feet, but finds himself sinking faster than he is traveling forward. With a last effort, as he plummets towards the ground, he throws his halberd futilely at the rakshasa, who stares at him with look of feline bewilderment. The halberd doesn't come anywhere close to the rakshasa, and Jasper's last feeling is that of cold water.
Adrienne watches Jasper plummet at superhuman speed into the fountain, a plume of water erupting from his body and a great wave sloshing most of the water over the edge of the fountain wall. His odd speed clarifies the frighteningly fast movements of the tiger-man; she is under a time-bending enchantment. "I must be resolute," she resolves as she closes with the tiger-man. The military pick taken from the half-orc general outside of Longspear is a fell weapon, and the rakshasa's hide is not immune to it. Adrienne's strength and skill drives the pick home, deep into the rakshasa's side.
Strange ichor oozes from the side of the tiger-man, who looks astonished at the tenacity and gall of these invaders. Moving slightly aside, he sends bolts of magical energy into Adrienne, tearing the flesh from her body. Adrienne is not to be denied though, and she slowly chases after the tiger-man. The look in her eyes is murderous, and the tiger-man opts to heal himself of some of his wounds rather than resolutely fighting. His lack of resolve is fatal. As she charges up after him, she feels the world slow back down; the rakshasa's enchantment must have expired.
The tiger-man's body is as susceptible now as it was before, and great rents are torn in the tiger-man's sides. Now though, Adrienne has the speed advantage and presses her opponent hard. Before he can muster another enchantment to strike her down, she smites him once and then twice about the head with her military pick. The second blow is vicious, sending its tines straight through an eye socket and out the top of the creature's head. The rakshasa slumps and falls down into the courtyard, crashing into the fountain near Jasper's inert body. The impact of the creature fractures the fountain, crushing one of the walls, and drains the remaining water into the courtyard.
The rest of the Company is equally freed of the tiger-man's enchantment. Winthrop, who has stood guard in the doorway, boiling the bugbears in a roiling cloud of steam, waits for Otto to be ready. The bugbears who have ventured down the stairs from the second story have felt the heat of the steaming cloud and have contented themselves with shooting crossbow bolts at Winthrop. The flashing of darkness and light behind them has clearly taken a toll on their senses, since the bolts generally come nowhere close to Winthrop. The few that do are easily deflected by his wards. "I'm ready," growls Otto, and Winthrop nods. With one last fake gesture with the wand, Wintrhop slides into the tower, allowing Otto to charge in and up the stairs. Al, Diego, and Raven quickly follow, rushing to force entry.
