Khessa directs a mote of fire at each of the two symbols of the Nefarious Duo, reducing them to ash: "When we are finished with you," she imagines addressing the pair of evil deities "your memory will end up the same - it will be dispersed by the wind once and for all".
The blonde arcane warrior considers: "I don't know how cunning these Demons are - perhaps they rely only on strength and ferocity, but it would not be wise to exclude that they have placed some of their people high up, in an advantageous position. I will have Anator check that the upper areas at the sides of the pass are free. If they are not, better go up and free them, instead of entering and getting surrounded". And the bat hovers in the sky, going to check...
The upper areas of the pass are clear, he did see a small village in the distance along the route that had numerous fingers of smoke rising
Hearing Khessa point out that demons could be lurking in the mountains, Clarac closes her eyes momentarily and attempts to sense whether any are present in the group's immediate vicinity.
Divine Sense:
The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell.
While they wait for the bat to scout the mountain pass, Clarac moves to bury the mangled remains of the two crucified people.
It feels as though the air is thick with evil, there are no detectable evil presence in the immediate area
Vrox looks grim and scans the area. He reaches back to his quiver and from somewhere, he manages to bring out a longbow as tall as he is. It seems to radiate power and has inscriptions carved all along it. The grip looks like some sort of gemstone. Vrox says, "I will scout ahead a little ways." He doesn't want anything to surprise them while the clerics bury the bodies.
Vrox walks ahead in whatever cover he can find near the road. He springs lightly from shadow to shadow, or perhaps the shadow reach out and embrace him. It's odd, but before he's even 100 ft. away, he's already practically invisible.
Vrox will scout ahead, moving with stealth, maybe 200' beyond the entrance to the pass.
You move from darkening shadow, to darkening shadow. The only sound is that of the breeze which carries what you detect is the smell of burning structures, blood and death. It comes from the direction of a small farming village that you can see off in the distance along the route. There are numerous tracks on the road, mostly human foot prints, but you do see at least one set of cloven-hoof.
You move from darkening shadow, to darkening shadow. The only sound is that of the breeze which carries what you detect is the smell of burning structures, blood and death. It comes from the direction of a small farming village that you can see off in the distance along the route. There are numerous tracks on the road, mostly human foot prints, but you do see at least one set of cloven-hoof.
Vrox keeps watch on the pass ahead until the others are ready to head up to the village ahead. He'll offer to scout ~ 120 ft. ahead of the group to see whether he can spot any immediate dangers or traps on the approach to the village. There's no reason for the whole party to risk walking into an ambush, and he says that he has variousways to get out of trouble. He can always Message back to the others if he spots something or if it looks all clear.
If Anator (the bat) or Clarac (on Wetherbee, her pegasus) wants to scan the skies above, that sounds good to him. Just remember that they'll be a target for any spellcasters or flying demons.
Lord Akkron looks at the corpses with an unreadable expression for a few moments... until Khessa lights them on fire.
"Yes, it is only right to lay them to rest," he agrees with everyone else. "Such a senseless waste of life..."
He fights back the urge to try to shield Flute's eyes from the carnage, reminding himself that, even though she looks like a child, she's a god. She's certainly aware of the horrors that the world has to offer.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Khessa announces that the upper areas in the immediate vicinity are free and when the fey hero offers to act as a scout she gladly accepts: "Your help is truly priceless, Vrox... Previously, when you went scouting, you literally disappeared from under my eyes! One moment you were there, the next you were not there anymore..."
"Even assuming that the Demons have more acute senses than mine, I trust that it will not be easy for them to discover you" the blonde arcane warrior muses aloud. "And if they find you, you should be able to get back to us - we won't be too far away. While if they don't find you... we could get an idea of where the Demons are located - and maybe plan the offensive better".
The tall adventurer is therefore ready to lead the group towards the village, while Vrox precedes them scouting ahead.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Getting a bit bored staying back, Tyekanik gets himself ready and says, "I'll go ahead with you in case you run into danger. I may be big, but I wear and carry little, so have learned to stay quiet when needed. Sometimes a silent bash to the head is more effective than a loud one,"he chuckles and is ready to follow Vrox' lead. ((stealth 15))
You move from darkening shadow, to darkening shadow. The only sound is that of the breeze which carries what you detect is the smell of burning structures, blood and death. It comes from the direction of a small farming village that you can see off in the distance along the route. There are numerous tracks on the road, mostly human foot prints, but you do see at least one set of cloven-hoof.
Vrox keeps watch on the pass ahead until the others are ready to head up to the village ahead. He'll offer to scout ~ 120 ft. ahead of the group to see whether he can spot any immediate dangers or traps on the approach to the village. There's no reason for the whole party to risk walking into an ambush, and he says that he has variousways to get out of trouble. He can always Message back to the others if he spots something or if it looks all clear.
If Anator (the bat) or Clarac (on Wetherbee, her pegasus) wants to scan the skies above, that sounds good to him. Just remember that they'll be a target for any spellcasters or flying demons.
You close to within the village, the sound of crackling fires as all of the farms are burning down having recently been torched. The smell of smoke and wood char is heavy on the air, and so is the smell of fresh blood. You can hear the sound of cutting, like an axe cutting flesh, and guttural laughter. It comes from the center of the town. Blending in with the smoke, you edge yourselves around until the center of town can be seen. There are piles of bodies, you assume the townspeople, stacked like firewood off to one side, but their heads are being piled up by a humanoid looking figure. This figure is bald, the circle with the arrows pointing out branded and tattooed on him, a cultist of Chaos. Two more join him with heads of cattle and add them to the growing pile of heads. You scan and count a total of 8 cultists who seem to be purposely laying out the heads, in a fashion that appears to be an offering. The other cultists raise a wooded cross, with a freshly flayed person on it, no head, but blood drenching the wood.
As they hammer it in place, the heads are set at the base of the cross, a large demon comes from a barn, chewing on a whole leg of a cow. It appears to be as described by Vrok, a Bloodletter. It looks upon the cultists and nod, and they bow in subservience to it.
Vrox has never fought with this group, so he looks to Khessa, Tyekanik, and Lord Akkron for a plan on how to approach these kinds of foes. If they're just going to attack, Vrox, of course, would like to fight from about 100' away and using his longbow (which does radiant damage in addition to the arrow itself). He has other options and various spells, but the dragon-touched longbow is his primary weapon.
"The massacre and that mutilation of bodies... must be part of a ritual to summon even more Demons" Khessa hypothesizes, with a hard and dark look in her blue eyes. "There aren't many of them. Let's attack them now and stop what they're doing".
"They're grouped together - those of us who want to use wide area spells should act first" the blonde arcane warrior reasons. "Then, those (like me) who prefer melee can rush in and try to finish the job. I would suggest giving priority to eliminating the cultists, who should be the weaker targets, and then we all focus together on the demon".
"What do you think?" the tall adventurer asks the rest of the party for confirmation "Okay? Ready?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Tyekanik, struggling to hold his rage in as Khessa plans, waits just long enough for the spell casters to rain down any hell they want on to the mass of evil in front of him, and stepping out from his hiding place grips his axe as he suddenly grows to nearly three times his original height, the axe in his hand (singular now) no longer seeming at all too large. He then looks to the bloodletter, points to it and lets out some truly filthy swearing in Giant, calling the demon, and any around, to him as he charges forward.
Tyekanik, struggling to hold his rage in as Khessa plans, waits just long enough for the spell casters to rain down any hell they want on to the mass of evil in front of him, and stepping out from his hiding place grips his axe as he suddenly grows to nearly three times his original height, the axe in his hand (singular now) no longer seeming at all too large. He then looks to the bloodletter, points to it and lets out some truly filthy swearing in Giant, calling the demon, and any around, to him as he charges forward.
initiative 18
You surprise the group, and they turn to look at you. as you charge, the demon seems to smile and hefting his sword, charges out to meet you.
While the spellcasters cast any spells, Vrox tries to find a spot to hide, around 60 - 90 ft from the town center and with an unobstructed view of their opponents. As soon as the wizard and cleric cast their spells, Vrox will fire his longbow, focusing on the cultists, as suggested by Khessa.
While waiting.
Movement: Move stealthily to a hiding spot within 90' of the town center. Action: Hide - Stealth35
Here are his first round of attacks so that you can resolve the first round if nothing else changes before then.
Movement: Up to 40' of movement to come out of hiding, fire his bow, and then move back to a hiding spot. Action: Two attacks with Dragon's Wrath Longbow (150/600), targeting two different cultists, rolling the first attack with advantage (because he's presumably an unseen attacker), radiant damage from the bow and psychic damage from Dreadful Strikes Attack 1: 36 Damage: 20 (piercing) + 21 (radiant) + 7 (psychic) Attack 2: 27 Damage: 16 (piercing) + 16 (radiant) + 5 (psychic) Bonus Action: Hide - Stealth22 (using Vanish feature)
Aya closes to 60 ' from the Demon and rebukes it holding her holy symbol aloft. "Go Back to hell you are from and do not return." She casts Banishment CHR Save 21 or poof.
Khessa waits for those who want to use wide area damage spells to do so comfortably, then launches into the attack, clutching the Death Lance in both hands and focusing on the Cultists.
Aiming to eliminate as many as possible, she focuses on the most injured ones and every time she manages to take down one of them she moves on to the next.
[[ OOC: Since she is uneder the effect of Protection From Evil And Good, the Demon has disadvantage on attack rolls against her ]]
(Should have been Shadowfell Brand Tattoo.)
The upper areas of the pass are clear, he did see a small village in the distance along the route that had numerous fingers of smoke rising
It feels as though the air is thick with evil, there are no detectable evil presence in the immediate area
You move from darkening shadow, to darkening shadow. The only sound is that of the breeze which carries what you detect is the smell of burning structures, blood and death. It comes from the direction of a small farming village that you can see off in the distance along the route. There are numerous tracks on the road, mostly human foot prints, but you do see at least one set of cloven-hoof.
Vrox keeps watch on the pass ahead until the others are ready to head up to the village ahead. He'll offer to scout ~ 120 ft. ahead of the group to see whether he can spot any immediate dangers or traps on the approach to the village. There's no reason for the whole party to risk walking into an ambush, and he says that he has various ways to get out of trouble. He can always Message back to the others if he spots something or if it looks all clear.
If Anator (the bat) or Clarac (on Wetherbee, her pegasus) wants to scan the skies above, that sounds good to him. Just remember that they'll be a target for any spellcasters or flying demons.
Lord Akkron looks at the corpses with an unreadable expression for a few moments... until Khessa lights them on fire.
"Yes, it is only right to lay them to rest," he agrees with everyone else. "Such a senseless waste of life..."
He fights back the urge to try to shield Flute's eyes from the carnage, reminding himself that, even though she looks like a child, she's a god. She's certainly aware of the horrors that the world has to offer.
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Khessa announces that the upper areas in the immediate vicinity are free and when the fey hero offers to act as a scout she gladly accepts: "Your help is truly priceless, Vrox... Previously, when you went scouting, you literally disappeared from under my eyes! One moment you were there, the next you were not there anymore..."
"Even assuming that the Demons have more acute senses than mine, I trust that it will not be easy for them to discover you" the blonde arcane warrior muses aloud. "And if they find you, you should be able to get back to us - we won't be too far away. While if they don't find you... we could get an idea of where the Demons are located - and maybe plan the offensive better".
The tall adventurer is therefore ready to lead the group towards the village, while Vrox precedes them scouting ahead.
Getting a bit bored staying back, Tyekanik gets himself ready and says, "I'll go ahead with you in case you run into danger. I may be big, but I wear and carry little, so have learned to stay quiet when needed. Sometimes a silent bash to the head is more effective than a loud one," he chuckles and is ready to follow Vrox' lead. ((stealth 15))
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
You close to within the village, the sound of crackling fires as all of the farms are burning down having recently been torched. The smell of smoke and wood char is heavy on the air, and so is the smell of fresh blood. You can hear the sound of cutting, like an axe cutting flesh, and guttural laughter. It comes from the center of the town. Blending in with the smoke, you edge yourselves around until the center of town can be seen. There are piles of bodies, you assume the townspeople, stacked like firewood off to one side, but their heads are being piled up by a humanoid looking figure. This figure is bald, the circle with the arrows pointing out branded and tattooed on him, a cultist of Chaos. Two more join him with heads of cattle and add them to the growing pile of heads. You scan and count a total of 8 cultists who seem to be purposely laying out the heads, in a fashion that appears to be an offering. The other cultists raise a wooded cross, with a freshly flayed person on it, no head, but blood drenching the wood.
As they hammer it in place, the heads are set at the base of the cross, a large demon comes from a barn, chewing on a whole leg of a cow. It appears to be as described by Vrok, a Bloodletter. It looks upon the cultists and nod, and they bow in subservience to it.
Vrox has never fought with this group, so he looks to Khessa, Tyekanik, and Lord Akkron for a plan on how to approach these kinds of foes. If they're just going to attack, Vrox, of course, would like to fight from about 100' away and using his longbow (which does radiant damage in addition to the arrow itself). He has other options and various spells, but the dragon-touched longbow is his primary weapon.
"The massacre and that mutilation of bodies... must be part of a ritual to summon even more Demons" Khessa hypothesizes, with a hard and dark look in her blue eyes. "There aren't many of them. Let's attack them now and stop what they're doing".
"They're grouped together - those of us who want to use wide area spells should act first" the blonde arcane warrior reasons. "Then, those (like me) who prefer melee can rush in and try to finish the job. I would suggest giving priority to eliminating the cultists, who should be the weaker targets, and then we all focus together on the demon".
"What do you think?" the tall adventurer asks the rest of the party for confirmation "Okay? Ready?"
If everyone approves, Khessa prepares for the battle drawing protection signs on herself with her arcane rod, while mumbling arcane musical-sounding syllables. Alfred, the imposing humanoid construct even taller than she is, is already ready behind her, to accompany her in battle as usual.
Tyekanik, struggling to hold his rage in as Khessa plans, waits just long enough for the spell casters to rain down any hell they want on to the mass of evil in front of him, and stepping out from his hiding place grips his axe as he suddenly grows to nearly three times his original height, the axe in his hand (singular now) no longer seeming at all too large. He then looks to the bloodletter, points to it and lets out some truly filthy swearing in Giant, calling the demon, and any around, to him as he charges forward.
initiative 18
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
The cultists
The demon
You surprise the group, and they turn to look at you. as you charge, the demon seems to smile and hefting his sword, charges out to meet you.
While the spellcasters cast any spells, Vrox tries to find a spot to hide, around 60 - 90 ft from the town center and with an unobstructed view of their opponents. As soon as the wizard and cleric cast their spells, Vrox will fire his longbow, focusing on the cultists, as suggested by Khessa.
While waiting.
Movement: Move stealthily to a hiding spot within 90' of the town center.
Action: Hide - Stealth 35
Here are his first round of attacks so that you can resolve the first round if nothing else changes before then.
Movement: Up to 40' of movement to come out of hiding, fire his bow, and then move back to a hiding spot.
Action: Two attacks with Dragon's Wrath Longbow (150/600), targeting two different cultists, rolling the first attack with advantage (because he's presumably an unseen attacker), radiant damage from the bow and psychic damage from Dreadful Strikes
Attack 1: 36 Damage: 20 (piercing) + 21 (radiant) + 7 (psychic)
Attack 2: 27 Damage: 16 (piercing) + 16 (radiant) + 5 (psychic)
Bonus Action: Hide - Stealth 22 (using Vanish feature)
Aya
Init - 8
Aya closes to 60 ' from the Demon and rebukes it holding her holy symbol aloft. "Go Back to hell you are from and do not return." She casts Banishment CHR Save 21 or poof.
D&D since 1984
Khessa waits for those who want to use wide area damage spells to do so comfortably, then launches into the attack, clutching the Death Lance in both hands and focusing on the Cultists.
Aiming to eliminate as many as possible, she focuses on the most injured ones and every time she manages to take down one of them she moves on to the next.
[[ OOC: Since she is uneder the effect of Protection From Evil And Good, the Demon has disadvantage on attack rolls against her ]]
Khessa's Multiattack with Death Lance:
1st Attack: 33 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll. (magical piercing) + Unable to parse dice roll. (necrotic) = 0
2nd Attack: 38 Damage: 17 (magical piercing) + 16 (necrotic) = 33
3rd Attack: 26 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll. (magical piercing) + Unable to parse dice roll. (necrotic) = 0
Khessa's Initiative, if needed: 12