Relief washes over him as the wounds close. He nods thankfully to the tiefling cleric. "Thank you, that definitely helps."
Kal eyes the rapier for a moment before nodding. "Still not quite what I'm used to, but much better than a dagger or this shortsword." He hands the shortsword off to the man, giving the rapier a few experimental thrusts once its in his hands.
He looks to their west, eyeing the opening in the fight."It's a longshot, but maybe we could try sneaking out of here while the rest are preoccupied?"
Seeing that the immediate threat has waned, Glyptemis bends down to search for the strange stone the attacker had put away, along with anything else useful they may have had on them. He also picks up the Shortsword they were wielding. "It'll be useful to have a real sword in hand too I think..."
OoC: Lmk if you'd like an Investigation check!
Looking up at a Kal, he nods and says "Agreed! I'm not at all interested in fighting anymore of these.. people. Whoever they are. I still have no idea what's going on here... and I don't like it."
Lyra appreciates the clear thinking of her new companions. All of us are legitimately confused and even fearful, but no panic. That is good.
"Staying together appears wise, particularly as the red and white elves seem to have been responsible for individually capturing and imprisoning each of us. The wagon we were in is clearly open, virtually shouting to the world that we have broken free, but then, the elf who fled from us will tell of our escape regardless. And the other wagons, where our gear may be, all seem too close to the fighting to avoid notice if we approach."
She pauses. "I can disguise self to appear as the elf who was sent to open our wagon before taking a crossbow bolt to the throat. I could then take the keys and run back, close and lock our prison wagon, and scout the other wagons and elves while the rest of you make an escape? Just tell me which direction you are going - perhaps northwest along the cliff? Or northeast along the chasm? I would like to be able to find all of you afterwards."
Lyra listens for other ideas. If others agree to her disguise, she casts disguise self (using a pact slot), agreeing with the others on a code word (perhaps 'stone' or 'keys'?) that she will use as part of any spoken sentence so the others can identify her once they (hopefully) meet again after being separated.
OoC: 24 hours have passed. For this round, Juno is quiet but gathers with the rest of the group.
Glyptemis is able to find the sending stone within the dead man's cloak pocket, but aside from that there isn't anything he carries. The fabrics he wear that seem to blend into the surroundings are otherwise unremarkable. Unlike the elves, with their ghost-white hair and red eyes, he looks like a fairly normal fellow.
Leftenant doesn't find much in the way of familiarity with these odd elves. The shoulders of the tunic they wear beneath their chain shirts are emblazoned with a faint symbol in white and black. A dark circle with a white rim, reminiscent of a solar eclipse. You don't know of any religious groups that bear that symbol, nor any noble houses in the area that it might belong to. The corpse doesn't carry anything in the way of orders - the only other thing on it that sticks out is an iron ring around one of the fingers with a small ruby inset the center.
The elves have almost entirely finished the fight at this point - the one which escaped you makes it at least to the spellcaster, who still has her gaze glued to woods to her east.
You see another of the ambushes dart from the trees to your northeast, positioning themselves on the road just in front of the wagon you were imprisoned in(~60 feet from where you are now). In place of the shortswords and crossbows you've seen, they wield a polearm with a long silver haft. You can see the glint of embedded sapphires from here, and the curved blade at its end almost looks like ice.
There's a deep resonant hum, like wind gathering in a tunnel. Suddenly it snaps, and you see a blast of frigid air erupt from the blade of the newcomer's weapon in a 60-foot cone down the road. The group of elves and camouflaged assailants that had been fighting in between two of the other wagons are caught in the cone of cold - all but a few are frozen solid by the spell. As the cold air disperses and the howl of the wind dies down, you see him glance upwards in your direction.
Top of Initiative Again: Leftenant, Glyptemis, Lyra, Juno, Kalamin.
Juno watches as another of the ambushers darts behind the wagon they were held in.
"If you're going to go about trying to relock the wagon, you're going to have to contend with that guy. And he...well...looks maybe a touch more formidable than the rest. Maybe his fancy weapon is a mark of rank?" She says to Lyra. "If I'm honest, though, I don't think this is the time to break off from each other. We're entirely out of our element here, wherever we are, and surrounded by people who are either out to capture us, or kill us outright. We should gather what we can and flee while the opportunity is still with us." Her gaze once more lands on the ambusher with the jeweled weapon.
The tiefling takes a deep breath, slowly letting it out and steadying herself.
"Whatever we do, we need to do it now. If we need a passphrase, let's use Stone Keys, but again....I think it's best to stick together entirely." It's clear she's ready to bolt. Juno stays low behind their rocky cover, but is ready to leave. The longer they hesitate, the more nervous she becomes....but at the same time it doesn't appear like she's willing to outright abandon the rest.
Leftenant makes a mental note of the solar eclipse emblem. “Perhaps the Tiefling healer might know more about it.” He thinks. Then the ring catches his eye. “An odd bit of color.” He reaches for it, then pauses. He spends just a second in contemplative debate. “What if it’s a way for these elves to track each other. If I have it on me, then they’ll be able to track me, and those I travel with. But they will most likely have other means to track you already, so what does it matter?” He argues with himself, the thoughts race through his mind during this single moment. In the end, he grabs it off before gathering with the others.
As the group confers, and Lyra offers to go back and reset the escapee’s wagon, LT was about to offer to cover her. He figured he could track the group’s movement while not abandoning the dark musician. But then a newcomer issues forth magics from its icy blade and freezes both sides of this fight.
“We have to go, now!”
(LT will gather what he has and begin to Dash away, but I’m still a little unclear of the battlefield. I think West by Northwest is best to move away from the fighting but if the group moves in a different direction or redirects him, he will shake his head trying to get his bearings before joining.)
"I'm not much of a healer, but please just call me Juno. We can decipher the emblem later." She says as the newcomer flash freezes almost every other combatant.
"Agreed. Move now!" She will wait to move along with Leftenant in whatever direction safely leads away from the other combatants.
Action: Holding action to dash whenever Leftenant and the rest of the group move
Glyptemis is at first nodding and agreeing with Lyra's plan, intrigued to see how this person might walk directly into the fray with such confidence, even with nothing but a mere disguise to protect her. As soon as the ambusher blasts the battlefield with their icy spear, however, his affirmative nodding switches immediately to vigorous shaking. "Maybe.. maybe whatever is left in those wagons just isn't worth the effort, eh? Lets stick together and get the hell out of here!"
Glyp then begins to Dash in the direction of apparent safety with LT, while grabbing Lyra's hand and coaxing her to come as well.
Lyra opens her mouth to address the newcomer with the deadly magic. For deep in her heart, she believes she can talk her way out of nearly anything...
Then she considers the sheer uncertainty of the situation. We still have no earthly idea who either of these two groups are. Our captors and our assailants both. What did the red and white elf say? "These rats will kill you for nothing..."
She lets go her dark harmonica which she had subconsciously begun to raise to her lips. Seeing her companions beginning to flee, and the tortle reaching for her hand to bring her with him, after a moment's hesitation, she accedes.
Lyradashes along with the others, running in the same direction, though fanning out a bit so as not to clump up or form a line to present an easy target for an area of effect or wall spell that may be sent their way by the newcomer.
Kalamin watches the stranger's polearm as it swings through the air with no small amount of envy. Now that was a weapon he would be comfortable with. Unfortunately, the chances of him getting his hands on it with promptly dying seemed abysmally low. He grimaces as they unleash a blast of frigid air on the other combatants.
When the unknown man glances up in their direction, Kal moves along with the others. "Let's hope that other spellcaster can keep his attention." He mutters quietly as he runs with the others, tightly gripping the rapier in his hand.
As your group darts West/Northwest towards the cliff face, the elves finish off the last of their ambushers - save for the polearm wielder by your prison wagon. While you flee, he's the only one who remains focused on you. Your elvish captors and the red-robed spellcaster all turn their attention to him.
Leftenant continues on, putting as much space between himself and the battle. If he looked back, he might have seen the final standoff. But he doesn’t look back. He is looking forward, barely able to see where his feet land in the dim light of the moon. Stumbling every once in a while, he allows his momentum carry him forward before regaining balance. He’s looking for cover, and a path away from the prison wagon. “Watch your footing.” He whispers back, hoping that his escapees are doing better n the dark than he is.
Two of the pale elves vanish in wisps of shadow, reappearing closer to the last man standing of the ambushing party. They rush him together - one right behind the other, thrusting with their rapiers. The man takes his eyes off your group long enough to deal with the assault. He whirls his polearm into motion, deflecting one of the blades while dancing out of the way of the other.
Glyptemis continues loping his way away from the battle with LT, taking care not to alert any of the nearby elves as his elongated limbs carry him smoothly across the terrain. He worries about the one elf that escaped back to the group... he worries about who might be on the other side of this sending stone... but mostly he's worried about getting out of this current situation alive, so he puts his full focus on creating distance between himself and the battle.
As Glyptemis hurries after Leftenant, you hear a frustrated scream to your right. You glance over to see the ghost-white spellcaster slam her staff into the ground pulling a knife from her belt, baring her teeth in a snarl towards the newcomer. She slices a cut open on her forearm, letting the blood drip down to her fingertips. As she begins to intone a chant in that strange elvish-but-not-elvish language, the blood coalesces into tendrils, snaking through the air like roots to six corpses on the ground. The blood flashes with a red glow as she finishes her spell, and the bodies rise in spite of their mortal wounds. Their eyes glow red, and their movements are shifty and unnatural.
The mage and her thralls are still focused on the polearm wielder - you are below notice so far. The raised dead shamble forward, dashing towards the isolated man and surrounding him.
Once more, Lyra hesitates as the red and white elven spell-caster raises a throng of zombies to attack the newcomer on her behalf.
The words coming out of her mouth sound conversational in tone. "Necromancy. How lovely."
Yet, something stronger stirs within her. Some deeper aversion. Her soft brown irises strobe to black once more, and she shakes her head as if to clear it.
Tearing her focus away from what is transpiring to the east, Lyradashes north along with the others.
As your group continues to race north, the elves begin their advance on the newcomer. The one that had slipped your grasp earlier, now standing next to the mage, takes a moment to look around. His eyes narrows as he searches the battlefield, but he doesn't seem to find what he's looking for - you.
He remains by the spellcaster's side while two other elves form up on the road - raising shortbows at the polearm wielder. They loose their arrows, and through the thick of zombies and elves surrounded him one finds their mark. He doesn't cry out however.
Juno and Kalamin, you're up.
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Relief washes over him as the wounds close. He nods thankfully to the tiefling cleric. "Thank you, that definitely helps."
Kal eyes the rapier for a moment before nodding. "Still not quite what I'm used to, but much better than a dagger or this shortsword." He hands the shortsword off to the man, giving the rapier a few experimental thrusts once its in his hands.
He looks to their west, eyeing the opening in the fight. "It's a longshot, but maybe we could try sneaking out of here while the rest are preoccupied?"
Seeing that the immediate threat has waned, Glyptemis bends down to search for the strange stone the attacker had put away, along with anything else useful they may have had on them. He also picks up the Shortsword they were wielding. "It'll be useful to have a real sword in hand too I think..."
OoC: Lmk if you'd like an Investigation check!
Looking up at a Kal, he nods and says "Agreed! I'm not at all interested in fighting anymore of these.. people. Whoever they are. I still have no idea what's going on here... and I don't like it."
Lyra appreciates the clear thinking of her new companions. All of us are legitimately confused and even fearful, but no panic. That is good.
"Staying together appears wise, particularly as the red and white elves seem to have been responsible for individually capturing and imprisoning each of us. The wagon we were in is clearly open, virtually shouting to the world that we have broken free, but then, the elf who fled from us will tell of our escape regardless. And the other wagons, where our gear may be, all seem too close to the fighting to avoid notice if we approach."
She pauses. "I can disguise self to appear as the elf who was sent to open our wagon before taking a crossbow bolt to the throat. I could then take the keys and run back, close and lock our prison wagon, and scout the other wagons and elves while the rest of you make an escape? Just tell me which direction you are going - perhaps northwest along the cliff? Or northeast along the chasm? I would like to be able to find all of you afterwards."
Lyra listens for other ideas. If others agree to her disguise, she casts disguise self (using a pact slot), agreeing with the others on a code word (perhaps 'stone' or 'keys'?) that she will use as part of any spoken sentence so the others can identify her once they (hopefully) meet again after being separated.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
OoC: 24 hours have passed. For this round, Juno is quiet but gathers with the rest of the group.
Glyptemis is able to find the sending stone within the dead man's cloak pocket, but aside from that there isn't anything he carries. The fabrics he wear that seem to blend into the surroundings are otherwise unremarkable. Unlike the elves, with their ghost-white hair and red eyes, he looks like a fairly normal fellow.
Leftenant doesn't find much in the way of familiarity with these odd elves. The shoulders of the tunic they wear beneath their chain shirts are emblazoned with a faint symbol in white and black. A dark circle with a white rim, reminiscent of a solar eclipse. You don't know of any religious groups that bear that symbol, nor any noble houses in the area that it might belong to. The corpse doesn't carry anything in the way of orders - the only other thing on it that sticks out is an iron ring around one of the fingers with a small ruby inset the center.
The elves have almost entirely finished the fight at this point - the one which escaped you makes it at least to the spellcaster, who still has her gaze glued to woods to her east.
You see another of the ambushes dart from the trees to your northeast, positioning themselves on the road just in front of the wagon you were imprisoned in(~60 feet from where you are now). In place of the shortswords and crossbows you've seen, they wield a polearm with a long silver haft. You can see the glint of embedded sapphires from here, and the curved blade at its end almost looks like ice.
There's a deep resonant hum, like wind gathering in a tunnel. Suddenly it snaps, and you see a blast of frigid air erupt from the blade of the newcomer's weapon in a 60-foot cone down the road. The group of elves and camouflaged assailants that had been fighting in between two of the other wagons are caught in the cone of cold - all but a few are frozen solid by the spell. As the cold air disperses and the howl of the wind dies down, you see him glance upwards in your direction.
Top of Initiative Again: Leftenant, Glyptemis, Lyra, Juno, Kalamin.
Juno watches as another of the ambushers darts behind the wagon they were held in.
"If you're going to go about trying to relock the wagon, you're going to have to contend with that guy. And he...well...looks maybe a touch more formidable than the rest. Maybe his fancy weapon is a mark of rank?" She says to Lyra. "If I'm honest, though, I don't think this is the time to break off from each other. We're entirely out of our element here, wherever we are, and surrounded by people who are either out to capture us, or kill us outright. We should gather what we can and flee while the opportunity is still with us." Her gaze once more lands on the ambusher with the jeweled weapon.
The tiefling takes a deep breath, slowly letting it out and steadying herself.
"Whatever we do, we need to do it now. If we need a passphrase, let's use Stone Keys, but again....I think it's best to stick together entirely." It's clear she's ready to bolt. Juno stays low behind their rocky cover, but is ready to leave. The longer they hesitate, the more nervous she becomes....but at the same time it doesn't appear like she's willing to outright abandon the rest.
Leftenant makes a mental note of the solar eclipse emblem. “Perhaps the Tiefling healer might know more about it.” He thinks. Then the ring catches his eye. “An odd bit of color.” He reaches for it, then pauses. He spends just a second in contemplative debate. “What if it’s a way for these elves to track each other. If I have it on me, then they’ll be able to track me, and those I travel with. But they will most likely have other means to track you already, so what does it matter?” He argues with himself, the thoughts race through his mind during this single moment. In the end, he grabs it off before gathering with the others.
As the group confers, and Lyra offers to go back and reset the escapee’s wagon, LT was about to offer to cover her. He figured he could track the group’s movement while not abandoning the dark musician. But then a newcomer issues forth magics from its icy blade and freezes both sides of this fight.
“We have to go, now!”
(LT will gather what he has and begin to Dash away, but I’m still a little unclear of the battlefield. I think West by Northwest is best to move away from the fighting but if the group moves in a different direction or redirects him, he will shake his head trying to get his bearings before joining.)
"I'm not much of a healer, but please just call me Juno. We can decipher the emblem later." She says as the newcomer flash freezes almost every other combatant.
"Agreed. Move now!" She will wait to move along with Leftenant in whatever direction safely leads away from the other combatants.
Action: Holding action to dash whenever Leftenant and the rest of the group move
Glyptemis is at first nodding and agreeing with Lyra's plan, intrigued to see how this person might walk directly into the fray with such confidence, even with nothing but a mere disguise to protect her. As soon as the ambusher blasts the battlefield with their icy spear, however, his affirmative nodding switches immediately to vigorous shaking. "Maybe.. maybe whatever is left in those wagons just isn't worth the effort, eh? Lets stick together and get the hell out of here!"
Glyp then begins to Dash in the direction of apparent safety with LT, while grabbing Lyra's hand and coaxing her to come as well.
Lyra opens her mouth to address the newcomer with the deadly magic. For deep in her heart, she believes she can talk her way out of nearly anything...
Then she considers the sheer uncertainty of the situation. We still have no earthly idea who either of these two groups are. Our captors and our assailants both. What did the red and white elf say? "These rats will kill you for nothing..."
She lets go her dark harmonica which she had subconsciously begun to raise to her lips. Seeing her companions beginning to flee, and the tortle reaching for her hand to bring her with him, after a moment's hesitation, she accedes.
Lyra dashes along with the others, running in the same direction, though fanning out a bit so as not to clump up or form a line to present an easy target for an area of effect or wall spell that may be sent their way by the newcomer.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Kalamin watches the stranger's polearm as it swings through the air with no small amount of envy. Now that was a weapon he would be comfortable with. Unfortunately, the chances of him getting his hands on it with promptly dying seemed abysmally low. He grimaces as they unleash a blast of frigid air on the other combatants.
When the unknown man glances up in their direction, Kal moves along with the others. "Let's hope that other spellcaster can keep his attention." He mutters quietly as he runs with the others, tightly gripping the rapier in his hand.
As your group darts West/Northwest towards the cliff face, the elves finish off the last of their ambushers - save for the polearm wielder by your prison wagon. While you flee, he's the only one who remains focused on you. Your elvish captors and the red-robed spellcaster all turn their attention to him.
Leftenant is first in initiative.
Leftenant continues on, putting as much space between himself and the battle. If he looked back, he might have seen the final standoff. But he doesn’t look back. He is looking forward, barely able to see where his feet land in the dim light of the moon. Stumbling every once in a while, he allows his momentum carry him forward before regaining balance. He’s looking for cover, and a path away from the prison wagon.
“Watch your footing.” He whispers back, hoping that his escapees are doing better n the dark than he is.
Two of the pale elves vanish in wisps of shadow, reappearing closer to the last man standing of the ambushing party. They rush him together - one right behind the other, thrusting with their rapiers. The man takes his eyes off your group long enough to deal with the assault. He whirls his polearm into motion, deflecting one of the blades while dancing out of the way of the other.
Glyptemis is up in initiative.
OoC: Can i get a vibe off of the polearm wielder's attention on us? Is it a death stare? Confusion? Intrigue?
OoC: The same cold glare the rest of the ambushers have held.
Glyptemis continues loping his way away from the battle with LT, taking care not to alert any of the nearby elves as his elongated limbs carry him smoothly across the terrain. He worries about the one elf that escaped back to the group... he worries about who might be on the other side of this sending stone... but mostly he's worried about getting out of this current situation alive, so he puts his full focus on creating distance between himself and the battle.
As Glyptemis hurries after Leftenant, you hear a frustrated scream to your right. You glance over to see the ghost-white spellcaster slam her staff into the ground pulling a knife from her belt, baring her teeth in a snarl towards the newcomer. She slices a cut open on her forearm, letting the blood drip down to her fingertips. As she begins to intone a chant in that strange elvish-but-not-elvish language, the blood coalesces into tendrils, snaking through the air like roots to six corpses on the ground. The blood flashes with a red glow as she finishes her spell, and the bodies rise in spite of their mortal wounds. Their eyes glow red, and their movements are shifty and unnatural.
The mage and her thralls are still focused on the polearm wielder - you are below notice so far. The raised dead shamble forward, dashing towards the isolated man and surrounding him.
Lyra is up in initiative.
Once more, Lyra hesitates as the red and white elven spell-caster raises a throng of zombies to attack the newcomer on her behalf.
The words coming out of her mouth sound conversational in tone. "Necromancy. How lovely."
Yet, something stronger stirs within her. Some deeper aversion. Her soft brown irises strobe to black once more, and she shakes her head as if to clear it.
Tearing her focus away from what is transpiring to the east, Lyra dashes north along with the others.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Juno held her action to dash once the others move. So she will use her reaction via her held action to dash (i.e. move 30 ft)
As your group continues to race north, the elves begin their advance on the newcomer. The one that had slipped your grasp earlier, now standing next to the mage, takes a moment to look around. His eyes narrows as he searches the battlefield, but he doesn't seem to find what he's looking for - you.
He remains by the spellcaster's side while two other elves form up on the road - raising shortbows at the polearm wielder. They loose their arrows, and through the thick of zombies and elves surrounded him one finds their mark. He doesn't cry out however.
Juno and Kalamin, you're up.