Tales of Faerun

[Naktis]

Nawen's eyes widened as she saw Mahira's lifeless body falling on the ground. The rush of sudden adrenaline that coursed through her body made her move faster. She ignored the collapsing ceiling avoiding the falling rubble. She ignored the acid rain which was falling hard upon them and made holes in her cloak. The only thing she cared about was to make the witch pain for what she had done to Mahira.

 

The drow was close to Ravenna when suddenly she felt someone pulling her back. "You're not going anywhere, drow." She heard a familiar voice. Nawen spun around quickly hoping to surprise attack the Fallen but Aedan was quicker. He slashed her arm with his blade. Nawen jumped back tightening her grip on her own sword's hilt.

[GrueMaster]

Tak'we managed to stop before he ran into the sword barrier, but he slipped in a pool of blood and landed on his side...hard. *CRACK!* The thri'kreen cried out in agony as his already broken arm was mangled further. Before he pulled himself up, he saw Ravenna launch a ray of green energy into the barrier, suddenly glad that the swords had appeared, but that feeling quickly died as he saw another ray hit Mahira and leave his clutchmate dead and broken on the floor. "NOO!!!" he screeched, leaping up to his feet. Tak'we lashed out in fury at the witch, but she had managed to move out of the range of his strike.

 

Hissing in frustration, the fighter started to move around the barrier, but then Ravenna summoned creatures unlike any he'd seen before. But this didn't even faze him, the thoughts of his dead clutchmate filling his mind. Tak'we met the first hooked horror that Echo had hit with her daggers, parrying its hook-like appendages on his gythka, keeping it from closing with the halfling. "Ssstay away from clutchmatess!!", he roared: he was not going to lose another friend. The creature was incredibly strong, but Rhaine's Blessing had boosted the thri'kreen's already immense strength, so Tak'we matched it easily. He forced the creature to one side and spun around, striking it with the reverse end of his weapon and taking off its head.

 

He charged toward the next one, oblivious to the spells being launched and the pieces of stone falling from the chapel's roof. He jumped on its chest and drove one end of his gythka into its chest, a sickening crack mixed with the thing's death cries filling the air. As it fell, Tak'we noticed Aeden slashing at Nawen and scooped up the severed hook and threw it at the Fallen, hoping to stagger him, and meant to go to her aid, but another pair of horrors closed in on him, forcing him away from the dark elf. Clicking furiously, the thri'kreen fought viciously, desperate to come to his friend's defense.

[AurianaValoria1]

"Never!" Rhaine shouted over the din of battle, calling other elements to her aid...this time her power manifested into a Firestorm, the air filling with flame and roasting two of the Hook Horrors alive. She dove and rolled as bits of the ceiling fell. One of the tiles slammed into her shoulder, denting her armor and slashing open one sleeve. The Doomguide ignored the stinging sensation that followed, biting her lip and jumping back to her feet.

 

Trying to even the odds, she called her Balor forth, the giant fiend crawling from a gash in the floor and roaring a battlecry. In an attempt to staunch some of her friends' wounds, she cast a Mass Heal spell, and a soothing blue light flashed across the chapel, sealing all but the most grave of injuries.

[Ithildin]

Echo heard Ravenna's hateful voice taunting her, but the denigrating word Calimite barely registered through her haze of grief and fury. She saw Aricia crawling pitifully across the blood-slicked floor; closer to hand, Nawen was assailed by a man in black, her arm bleeding from a wound. Tak'we had closed with one of the witch's aberrations and left it headless upon the ground; the halfling's dirk was wedged between plates of its exoskeleton. Ignoring the drops of acid searing the back of her neck and one of her ankles, she darted toward the horror's corpse, grasped her dagger in both hands and wrenched it free. She looked around for the weapon's twin, and saw its hilt protruding from the eye of another horror, but could not retrieve it: the creature was shrieking in agony, engulfed in flames from the Doomguide's Firestorm.

 

Rhaine's Mass Heal swiftly brought relief from the acid burns, but the halfling had no time to be thankful: as her leader's Balor emerged from beneath the earth, she instinctively propelled herself backward and out of its way.

[tokyobiohazard]

As spells, blades and bodies alike whizzed through the heavy air, William dug through his robes and produced a small book, situated himself in a corner, and began to write. He was, of course, concerned for his allies, but he had a journalistic duty not to interfere and to simply write what he saw. The witch Ravenna was not his enemy, and he was sure the last thing she could get out of him was youth and beauty, and thus were his reasons for believing he was safe.

 

Standing firm amidst the tide of battle like a large rock wedged along the shore was Reona, watching the tumultuous clash of powers surrounding her indifferently. Rubble from the collapsing ceiling rained down next to her, missing by mere inches. Acid dripped from above and pooled at her feet, but did not touch her. Her mind was a calm sea, however, not like this tsunami that raged on about those of her friends. It seemed one friend was now dead. This... irritated her, but did not excite her. Her neutrality in this now bothered her, somehow.

 

Arva saw the black-haired elf standing still as a stone, pitying that she could not feel anything. Tears had rolled down his cheeks upon seeing Mahira slain, and he fought with all his might against one of the Hook Horrors, managing to sever one of its hooked arms, but not without cost. As it shrieked in pain, the horrid creature thrust its beak into Arva's right calf muscle, tearing the flesh open to the bone. Another strike from the creature while he was in shock, this time even deeper, in the thigh of his injured leg. To Arva's surprise, he could still stand, and he hobbled over to the beast, not feeling the pain of his injury yet, and lopped off its head in one swift motion.

 

The chaos around him was making Alphonse feel as if every object that flew past him and every sound uttered by man or beast alike was wearing on his self-control. His eyes widened with every thud and scrape and scream that materialized in the air.

 

And then, his ears fell deaf to it all. Everything faded away as he saw Arva, the man he was most jealous of in this world, have his leg sliced open like a ham. Blood poured out of the gracefully pale elf's thigh, beginning to pool around his foot. Alphonse's own legs were numb as he rushed over to Arva, forgetting all animosity he'd ever felt for the husband of his lover. His arms shook as he caught Arva by the shoulders and pulled him away from the scene, fighting tears.

 

Arva tried to fight Alphonse's grip, but his leg... He looked down, and saw it, cleaved open in two places, somehow as cleanly as if with a knife. His body gave a tremor. He felt dizzy. Panicking, he clutched at Alphonse, who was trying his hardest to turn Arva's sword belt into a tourniquet, and whimpered, "Am I going to die?"

 

As the two passed Ianthe, she felt her blood boil and shouted at the top of her lungs, shaking with rage, "YOU!" For her, it felt as if the entire world had frozen and gone silent. Maybe it had, but she didn't see anything aside from the witch. She stepped toward Ravenna, scimitars drawn and pointed straight ahead at the emerald-eyed woman. "I'll kill you with my own two hands, you wretched abomination!" As she stepped past the Hook Horrors which had their sights on Tak'we, she sliced downward with both hands, greatly wounding one of them as if to emphasize her words, her eyes still on Ravenna and her face twisted into a scowl.

 

Rhaine's healing spell repaired Arva's femoral artery, and Alphonse sighed in relief, "No. You won't die." He looked up to see Ianthe about to do something foolish, but to leave Arva's side right now wasn't a good idea. He stayed put, despite the churning in his stomach. Maybe the witch would ignore her.

[AurianaValoria1]

Rhaine's Balor roared again and took one of the Hook Horrors in his massive claws, tearing its head from its body and drinking its lifeblood. Another of the horrid birds pecked at the Balor's calves, inciting the fiend to pick it up and wring its neck.

[tokyobiohazard]

Sana's tail twitched as she contemplated the drow woman's words. She ran her hands along her sides and stretched, extending her long arms toward the clear desert sky as she sighed. "Well, you shouldn't. But the thing is, which of my last two statements was true? Are you willing to take the risk of running right into the territory of several of my kind, or take your chances with just me?" The drow was probably still quite unconvinced, and Sana gave a wide grin, exposing a mouth full of the gleaming, pearly teeth of a carnivore, round and pointed and long.

 

"Maybe I take a shining to special females. Something tells me you aren't," she paused, circling the unicorn while crouched excitedly, admiring the way her hooked claws extended from inside her velvety paws, "Like others around here. No, you hold so much power! It's in the way you carry yourself!" She sighed once more.

 

"Take it from one," she paused again, letting out a throaty purr as she rubbed her feline form against the unicorn's flanks, "Powerful female, to another."

Edited January 12, 2013 by tokyobleach

[AurianaValoria1]

Ginafae's glowing red eyes narrowed, and she raised one thin white eyebrow at the lamia. She could feel the unicorn shifting beneath her, possibly to kick the weak abomination...

 

The drow did not loosen her grip upon her whip, "Spare me your flattery, beast. I am Arachne Ginafae of House Orlyndar...but you will address me as 'Mistress.' Now, if you want to live, you will tell me how to escape this infernal desert."

[mythicdawnmaster]

A demented laugh resonated around the chaotic battleground as Ravenna heard Ianthe's words "Try me then, Nymph, i'll tear your throat!" Ravenna taunted, pointing at Ianthe as two Hook Horrors looked for prey.

 

Ravenna was in constant movement, evading bolts of lightning from Xallistine, and revelling in all of the wounds her minions had inflicted upon the party; Furthering her smile as she saw Aricia old and grey in the corner. The balor was the most problematic for her minions, and the witch concluded she would remove it from play.

 

Uttering incantations of dispelation, she kept on the move as she readied a spell to send Rhaine's balor back to where it had spawned, she watched on as it wrung the neck of a Hook Horror. Se released the spell, and hit the Balor, hoping to dispel it once the spell took full effect.

 

Ravenna was close to Rhaine, but out of arms reach. "Give me the pommel! Now!" her eyes raging. She saw a faint glimmer in Rhaine's pocket, and a smile formed on her lips. "Or i shall take it from you."

 

 

Xallistine circled a Hook Horror, and set it alight with a huge fireball, the creature disintegrating. He became locked in battle with another, but looked over at Arva, his leg was in a terrible state! Seeing Ianthe attempt an advance upon Ravenna he called "Careful Ianthe! We don't want to loose you as well!"

[AurianaValoria1]

The Doomguide grimaced as her Balor was banished back to the Lower Planes. It was no matter, though. Most of the Hook Horrors were dead, and any stragglers could be handled by her companions. Rhaine snarled at the witch, "Why don't you try?"

 

She knew Ravenna would very well try...and for once, she was thankful for her rough childhood in West Harbor. She wondered if the pampered witch had ever been in an honest fistfight.