Zorg's Lost Souls III

Rowan sprints across the library, cutting off the darklings' route to the stairwell. His passions bubble to the surface, his fey magic erupts, and the sword in his hand vibrates as the elf lashes out in a series of no-look swipes. One swing slices through black robes and leather armour, rewarding Rowan with a grunt of pain. But the vibrations of the weapon are both a help and a hinder to Rowan (a two-edged sword, if you will), who struggles to maintain control as the sword slips in his grip.

The route to the stairwell is open to Mulligan, Barria and Greginald for the time being, as Rowan and Hurly gum up the attention of the darkling swarm.

MAP:

Anyone going for the stairs has a clear path, and can continue.
Anyone participating in the library conflict can roll initiative. 

((I’ll be doing both?  Init - 11))

"oh for the gods sake!" Greginald grunts, "everybody eyes closed!!" He screams as he steps 5ft toward hurly and points his finger to the north east (aiming for the square north east of Hurly) a small spark flies out of Greg's finger landing on the floor and fizzling out...

Then the entire room explodes in fire and light, a 20ft radius fireball consumes every Darkling, as well as Hurley, Rowan, Barria and G'Reg himself. Though Greg and his allies feel only a wave of warm air pass over them because of Greg's intricately crafted spell (sculpt spell feature).

The rest of the darklings however are somewhat overpowered and fully consumed by the spherical inferno. (Dc 15 Dex save, 25 fire damage on a fail, half on success)

Initiative 12

     Mulligan wonders how in the world he is supposed to see if he closes his eyes!  He initially settles for just turning his back to the damned things and moving to the mouth of the northwest hallway where the stairs are.  ((That is the stairs we want, yes?))

     Mulligan then squints as much as he can, tilts his head forward so the brim of his hat gives him some more protection, or so he hopes, and quickly rubs the pad of his thumb back and forth over his fingertips.  A moment later he is holding two vaguely translucent luminescent psychic daggers, one in each hand.  Once they have taken form he quickly spins towards the chaos, takes the briefest look possible, then launches his daggers through the air even as he spins back to look away.

     The psychic daggers jerk and zigzag through the air similar to lightning, or a stray thought, but ultimately head towards their intended targets - the Darkling Rowan has already injured.

     While Mulligan is silent during this, Break-A-Leg proves to be an annoying chatterbox of "What is going on?"  "Watch out!"  "What's that one doing?"  "Duck!" and other rather unhelpful exclamations...

((The squinting and hat brim and looking away are all flavor, I realize they won't actually affect how susceptible Mulligan is if they explode into light...))

Movement - Basically 1 square west and three north.

Action - Psychic Dagger attack vs Darkling - 19 to hit for 7 psychic damage

Bonus Action - Psychic Dagger attack vs Darkling - 17 to hit for 7 psychic damage

Other - Sneak Attack - The first attack to hit, if either, does an additional 11 damage since Rowan is engaged with it...

Barria's brow furrows as she sees the trouble Hurly is in and starts to weave a spell.  But then G'Reg hurls a fireball out of no where and she gasps!  "G'Reg!  Do you really think that was necessary!!  G'Reg? G'Reg?" she turns towards the little man and sees that he is blinded due to his own arrogance in her mind.  

Trying to throw the remaining darklings off a bit, she casts sacred flame on the one closest to Hurly to hopefully distract it (DEX save 14 or a whole 4 radiant damage) then grabbing a hold of G'Reg's arm, she starts running towards the stairs (she isn't dragging him really, more showing him the way.  If he doesn't want help, she'll drop him) and yells to Hurly, "Leave them, just come block the stairs behind us if you can!  You're doing great!!"

Greginald unleashes his arcane power, and the library explodes! Flames fill the room, heat washing over all present, and igniting hundreds of volumes on shelves, as a concussive BOOM shakes the stone walls.

As bright as the fireball is however, it pales in comparison to the sunburst that is unleashed as darklings die. Light stored up for a lifetime is emitted from each fey creature in one instant flash, searing the eyes again and again as one, then another, then another burst into light and crumble to ash.

His eyes smarting, Mulligan launches his summoned daggers in the direction of the two nearest barely-surviving darklings. He knows he finds a mark on both as two more flashes light up the library.

Barria watches the entire spectacle like some kind of shadow theater, as the flashes all occur almost entirely behind the bookshelf in front of her, casting frightening shadows onto the ceiling. But through the haze of burning floating paper fragments, Barria can see that the darklings are just as affected by the light, if not more so! They reel and flail wildly, crashing into each other and into the shelves, sending more burning tomes cascading to the floor.

Grabbing the gnomes arm, Barria summons her own divine power, calling sacred light down on one of the light-sensitive creatures. Too late she realises her folly, as the heaven-engulfed darkling explodes, scorching Barria's eyes and sending her world dark. Dragging Greginald along, she stumbles blindly toward the staircase.

All sound of the performance in the nearby amphitheatre falls silent in response to the explosion. The eerie pause lasts for several moments, but as Barria and Greginald reach the far side of the library, a tumultuous noise rises from the rest of the darkling audience, who are now in an uproar...

Rowan literally jumps into the air when the explosion happens, his energy levels already dangerously out of control. But he’s in control enough to feel the vibrations of the Luthmelar around his neck. Out of more curiosity than anything, though given the sounds from the theatre, urgency is beginning to play a part in his decision making, Rowan takes the whistle he’s had for as long as he can remember and blows hard into it.

Then he shouts to the others “I think upstairs would be a good move right now.”

Rowan will hold the bottom of the stairs to keep it clear for the others to go up holding an attack versus any darklings that go for the stairs, following after if no darklings do attack.

The sound of raised voices from the theater falls instantly silent as Rowan blows on his whistle. In fact, the whistle itself makes no sound, except faintly to Rowan's ears, but the darklings can evidently detect it. Mulligan takes the opportunity to help guide the others up the stairs, his own eyes still smarting from the bright flashes of dying darklings. Barria and Greg stumble up after him, with Rowan bringing up the rear. At the first landing, vision returns, but the group don't stop, instead continuing on upwards, following Mulligan's lead, who has been this way before. Circling the balcony that surrounds the upper curves of the orrery, they can see that the main machine floor below looks deserted, although new sounds are echoing through the castle from outside. Without delay Mulligan hurries the group along to the right-side balcony, with Rowan guarding the rear. Bursting through the doors, the group are met with a combination of sights and sounds...

Just ahead of them, standing on the edge of the balcony and looking down to the stage, stands the hulking, black-clothed figure of Endelyn Moongrave, her skeletal hands gripping the banister, her gaze fixed on the scene below. Beside her is the great mechanical flying machine - the ornithopter - looking exactly as Mullligan left it. Sounds of conflict echo from the stage below, but the voices are too many for a standard stage-play. As the group venture far enough to see to the stage below, they see chaos. Darklings scurry around, their black cloaks flapping, and hidden blades being drawn as they prepare to face a new batch of assailants.

For over the walls of the castle, climbing on ropes made of their own hair, are dozens of korreds, their beady eyes flashing behind thick beards and brows. Meanwhile, from under the stage pour dozens more of the tiny brigganocks, armed with their tiny picks, and their soul-lights bobbing behind their shoulders. Both sides chant a similar tune, different yet combining in a haunting harmony that sends a chill up the spine. And in the middle of the three factions stands Charmay, dressed in a costume that both mimics and mocks Endelyn herself. Several of the other actors are visible, but whatever their roles might have been, they all now cower at the back of the stage, sensing that the pending conflict (not to mention the recent explosions from inside the castle) are not part of the play. Only Charmay seems unflustered by the mayhem.

The korred/brigganock song reaches a crescendo as the numbers peak, and suddenly the dual force rushes at the darklings. Their actions are those of an attacking force, but they seem to be simply harrying them... the accelerated brigganocks too fast to strike at, but also impossible to dodge as their picks nip at cloaks and heels... and the stone-skinned korreds keeping the darklings at bay with wide swings of their hair-ropes. Endelyn's hands wring the banister, still oblivious to the group's presence behind her, as Charmay speaks from the stage below in an unnaturally amplified voice, similar to the one Endelyn herself uses when announcing a new play...

AND SO, THE HAG'S DOOM DREW NIGH, AS HER MOTHER'S PROTEGE TIGHTENED THE NOOSE OF BETRAYAL. TOO LATE ENDELYN REALISED HER SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS, AND AS HER MINIONS FELL FAR BELOW, THE FINAL BATTLE UNFOLDED IN THE DARK SKIES ABOVE!

As Charmay's words echo throughout the amphitheater, her costume falls away, revealing an outfit the likes of which the group has not seen. A loose black dress drapes her slender form, merging with a kind of dark armour. Her head is crowned with a horned, skull-like helm, and she grips the staff that the group saw her with the first time they met. And as Charmay speaks, she levitates up into the air, drawing level with and then even rising above the height of Endlyn's balcony. The tip of her staff crackles with electricity.

It is at this moment, when Endelyn turns and looks to her ornithopter, that she catches sight of Mulligan, Barria, Greginal and Rowan standing behind her.

Traitorous simpletons, she snarls in a decidedly un-motherly voice. Today you meet your doom!

"Did we know she could do that?" Rowan says as he watches Chamay rise into the sky.

He then leans over the balcony and yells down into the chaos below.

"Amidor. I think this is the cue to get Gleam and Glister to do whatever it is they do." Rowan shouts. 

Rowan then looks back and listens to Endelyn's threat.

"You really only told us not to touch your machine downstairs that has all the balls and stuff. And we definitely didn't touch that. And we were never soldiers or servants of yours so I think calling us traitors is overly dramatic and inaccurate." Rowan says. He frowns. "I can't meet my doom from you. You told me that Greg and Barria were going to poison me and that's how I die. So which is it?" 

Greg, blinded and calm let's the warmth of the fireball wash over him, a sense of selfish achievement calming him, until barria grabs him and willing or not G'Reg is yanked and carried like a teddy bear in the grip of an overexcited child. Still blind and flailing as the dwarf drags him up the stairs and to the corridor. 

Once in the room and with Charmay revealed, Rowan begins his usual questions to a hostile threat. "I'm not going to poison you today Rowan, you don't have to worry about that. We also promised not to touch the library, which if I'm honest I did not touch a single book... at least not with my hands, they're all mostly ash now though" he chuckles spitefully at the hag as he prepares to cast. Striking a chip of mica against a stone inlaid in his tome, a ringing sounds from between the hag and her flying machine.

(Cast Shatter 10ft radius unsure if he can include both her and machine in the area, dc 15 Con save taking 12 thunder on fail, 6 on success.) 

Barria watches Charmay with a growing sense of.. well, she's impressed.  And really glad she's on their side.  But the korreds and brigs??  She grins from ear to ear as she watches them all pile in.  Apparently the meeting by the lake went well!  But she turns her attention to the hag.

As Rowan starts in on his questions and whatnot, Barria walks over to the ornithopter, trying to get between Endlyn and it, but probably figuring she'll use magic anyways.

     Doom? Mulligan wonders.  Is this the new Avengers movie??

     He then gives his head a quick but violent shake to clear out the nonsense and instead focus on the events right in front of him.

     "Hey!  What's going on?" Break-A-Leg asks loudly and with an extra measure of concern as the pile of bones tries to look over Mulligan's shoulder and then instantly regrets what he sees.  "Ohhhh, no, no, no, no!  I'm not with these people!  I mean obviously I am with them but I'm not WITH them..." 

     "You got this kid," Mulligan then hears whispered in his ear by the lungless marionette. "I'm totally pulling for you... just have to, you know, hedge my bets and all."

     Meanwhile Mulligan finds his fingers once again getting restless - the pads of his thumbs once more strumming back and forth across his fingertips summoning up psychic blades.  His mind flashes this way and that trying to think if he has any other helpful tools at his disposal but alas, sometimes it all boils down to violence.  As such he mentally hushes his friend with strings and starts to drift off to the side of the room, looking for a dark corner or some other form of concealment and prepares to act...

_____

Movement:  Off to the side so the group isn't bunched up and such.  Would look to put the ornithopter between him and Endelyn if he can in hopes it'd provide him with some cover? He's not looking to hide per se, just hoping she won't want to risk damaging her toy...

Action:  Attack!  Once he heard Endelyn talking about their doom he figures there is little choice...
Psychic Blade is 18 to hit for 7 psychic damage

Bonus Action: more Attack!
Psychic Blade is 9 to hit for 8 psychic damage

Sneak Attack?  I'm assuming not...  I think Mulligan is pretty high on the initiative list so I am kind of assuming there are no enemies of Endelyn within 5' of her to give him Sneak Attack opportunities.  Just in case I am wrong, the first hit (if either do) would do an additional 11 damage...

There is no response from the stage following Rowan's shouted plea to Amidor. Mulligan moves first, slipping behind the ornithopter, and throwing his summoned blades at the hag, with one striking her in the shoulder. Endelyn responds just as quickly, snapping her bony fingers at the shabby rogue as she glides over to the ornithopter and prepares to take to the skies...

Mulligan:

Charmay glides overhead, waving her staff in wide circles and shouting arcane incantations, as lightning crackling in the sky behind her. Sparkling flames begin to form around Endelyn, but the hag manages to deftly swirl her black dress, which seems to disperse the faerie-like fire into harmless sparks. Greginald summons his own magic: an intense, ear-piercing noise resonates across the balcony, and although he sees the frame of the dress splinter slightly, the frail-looking hag seems to be tough enough for the worst effects of the spell. The only real reward the gnome receives is seeing one solitary bolt slip free of the ornithopter and clatter to the ground, unnoticed by any except himself and Mulligan (who remembers loosening it).

The wizard, the witch, and the warlock... hurling spells at each other on the high balcony of a castle... lightning arcing overhead in the dark sky... fey armies battling on the stage below... this is a show the likes of which Motherhorn has never seen!

((Rowan and Barria are up, and then Mulligan again.))

Barria was pretty blown away by the whole situation, but is able to focus on the hag as she is trying to get away.  "Not if you can't see..." she states as she casts blindness/deafness upon Endelyn.  (CON save of 14 or be blinded for a minute.)

Rowan doesn't understand why nothing happens from below. Did Glister and Gleam get lost? And now magic is flying around and things are breaking and hags and witches are fighting and he's losing control of his emotions again.

Suddenly, as Rowan loses control again, shadowy dark tendrils appear around him and lash out like giant angry cat tails. One lashes at Endelyn (Con Save DC 15 or Endelyn takes 5 necrotic damage)

(Bonus Action - Rage - Wild Surge - Shadowy Tendrils and 1 temp hit point).

Not thinking very clearly now, Rowan charges at Endelyn and tries to wrap her up in his arms. If successful he keeps running with her, leaping off the balcony to the stage below, thinking maybe Glister and Gleam need to see the hag. (Grapple - adv/from Rage - 19, 26)

The elf suddenly explodes into action, charging at the hag while dark tentacles flail the air - are they attached to Rowan? who can tell? Endelyn's extra puppeteering arms emerge from the folds of her dress and manage to bat the tentacles away, but this leaves her exposed and off-balance. Rowan ploughs right into the hag and both go tumbling over the edge of the balcony and down to the stage... landing with a crash forty feet below in a tangle of black fabric.

((Rowan: Please roll 4d6 for falling damage))

((Barria: You can declare a different action if you wish, or I don't mind just fudging the initiative order and including your spell in the action))

((Mulligan: sure enough, Rowan and the hag are now 40' below you.))

     Mulligan momentarily mulls movements...

     Watching Rowan and the with go over the edge and fall down to the stage below put a crimp in the rogue's plans and he needed options.  Patting down his pockets even as he begins charging and summoning more psychic blades his hands press against a relatively newly acquired possession...  A packet of Pixie Dust he had won at the circus!  Mulligan doesn't exactly trust that a prize from that place will actually work as advertised but then again he has seen quite magical and magnificent doings there and since... So it is with a shrug that the shabby rogue sprinkles a share of the sparkly shavings over himself and hopes!

     With a gulp and bad feeling, Mulligan moves to the edge of the balcony and reluctantly climbs on the edge and forces himself to push himself over and off...

     And doesn't fall!  Despite squeezed eyes, clenched jaw and a stomach ready to flip flop more than a politician, Mulligan momentarily hovers in the air before he opens his eyes, realizes the magic is working, and then uses it to move down towards his target!  Mulligan get's close to the action but not quite close enough...  For the moment (his turn) he ends 10-15' above the tangled Endelyn and Rowan with no attacks currently available... Except to hove there and glower down at her.

_____

Action - Use Pixie Dust - I was initially assuming this would be a potion but nope, it's a wondrous item... So House Rule of imbibing potion as a Bonus Action do not apply.  Oh well.

Movement: go to railing and fly over to Endelyn...
Bonus Action: Cunning Action - Dash in order to get within 10 or 15 feet of Endelyn
     (She fell 40', Mulligan's movement is 30 but he probably needs a bit more to get close... And he may have been 5, 10, whatever feet away from railing anyway.)

1 or 10 rounds of Pixie Dust used up.

Barria fires her spell off, unsure of its effectiveness as Rowan and Endelyn topple over the balcony. Mulligan races to the edge, sprinkling a bag of sparkling dust on himself as he goes, then steps off the balcony too, gliding down toward the ground, and leaving Barria and Greginald on the balcony with the ornithopter. Rowan continues to wrestle with the hag, as both remain sprawled on the edge of the stage. Skylla is now too high in the sky to help, and two darklings break away from the nearby fray to assist their mistress.

Twisting around, Endelyn points one bony finger at the elf and hisses: Let go of me, you toad! Immediately Rowan feels his body start to tingle all over, and feels a strange craving to catch insects with his tongue...

((Rowan, please make a DC 14 WIS saving throw))

((Everyone is up, with Greginald going first, followed by Rowan, then Barria, and Mulligan))

Rowan the Frog flicks his tongue out once, then twice. After a brief pause he flicks it out three more times quickly. He looks up at Endelyn and, even in his current excited state, realizes she's far too big to do anything to. But then he spots the two Darklings approaching quickly. They're small. He'll have to turn his tiny rage on them.

Rowan the Frog hops quickly across the stage, leaping the last 10' through the air, lets out the loudest ribbit a frog has ever let out and tries to shove one Darkling into the other (DC 5 or be shoved 5' into the other darkling).

Nix waves a signal to Riven, and together the two darklings scamper toward their mistress. Nix watches with satisfaction as Endelyn turns one of her assailants into a toad. Foolish mortals! She wasn't called The Dame of Unhappy Endings for nothing. Drawing his blade Nix prepares to help defend Her Ladyship from the shabby human who is now levitating down from the high balcony.

His eyes on the human above, Nix doesn't see the toad turn its slimy body toward him... doesn't see the bulbous eyes aglow with a ferocity unheard of in a humble amphibian. Before Nix is aware, the toad launches itself at him, landing smack in the middle of Nix's hook-nosed face. Startled, Nix stumbles backward, crashing into Riven, who likewise loses his footing. The two cloaked darklings crash to the ground, with the toad still planted wetly on Nix's face.

((Greginald next, then I'll add something before Barria goes))