Quote from Zzozz___ >>

(OOC: Can you provide a sense for where we are on the map? Depending on how close we are the strategy for how to expose our numbers may need to change)

Grateful at the fresh water, Auger thanks Benita for her efforts. Auger finds the manner of travel fun, even as he predicts the soreness arising from this manner of travel will settle in and affect his movements for days. When discussion arises about how to proceed Auger merely nods along with the consensus but mostly asserts that whatever makes travel the easiest should be the approach they take.

 You are currently here.

(OOC: Access Denied on the map)

Trying again.

You are currently here.

Benita La Cass, whose mastery of her sand board is obvious to all of you, notices Auger — who seems ill-suited to sand boarding and barely able to keep his balance for most of the morning — and takes it upon herself to offer the warlock pointers, and an arm to lean on or steadying hand when a steep slope threatens to throw him. After refilling your water skins at the mining encampment, you have traveled for perhaps another hour, having made better and better time as you’ve grown more accustomed to and trusting of the Tawekki. While following the contours of the sand waves, which now parallel your motion through the desert, but which bend and turn slightly, as ocean waves do, you come around a bank and must crest a rise to the next furrow to maintain your heading. While the journey has been quiet up to this point, that soon changes. 

From the moment you reach the top of the wave, you hear sounds of fighting and see, as you climb the leeward side, then whoosh down the windward side of the dune, just to your right, two enormous creatures in a fight to the death: a twenty-foot tall giant humanoid with long grey hair like dry shale and brown sandstone complexion, dressed in a patchwork loincloth of lizard skins, in battle with a forty-foot long snake whose white, black and tan scales glint in the hot-white sun. The giant holds the snake over his head, choking it and barely keeping its 3-foot long, venom-dripping fangs away from him. 

They are 20’ to your right, as your boards slalom down the sloping dune, pulled by the whirring Tawekki.

What do you do? (See prior post for general location.)

(Sorry, notifications aren't really working right now so I've been ignoring those and just checked threads manually occasionally. I knew we were on a break here so I didn't bother to check this one...)

Varielky watches silently, from a safe though not a great distance. It's not good to disrupt a duel - if you can truly call this one - and getting stomped on by accident was not on Varielky's honourable death list. Varielky does slow down a little, though, to observe the fight better. Does the giant look like they intelligently fighting, or are they more like a wild beast who fights with their instincts? Does it look like they've been trained? 

If some roll is needed: 13. Didn't add any bonuses, because I'm not sure if any apply.

Cresting the dune and suddenly seeing the duel between the two immense creatures Auger is struck by the fierceness on display and worries for the team's safety. Auger notes that the giant is clothed in lizard skins and wonders if it perhaps might be friendly to their purpose. Doing much more than looking is beyond Auger while riding the sandboard. He continues past the creatures as well as he is able but pays attention to his teammates to see if they want to do anything different.

(Flashback)

Hearing the shout from the old man, Ednyss's curiosity is piqued, and the dwarf wanders over to the man's table. As he clears/serves the table, Ednyss nonchalantly asks, "Liberty? So you fought in the rebellion then?" He makes sure he isn't drawing any undue attention with his question. (Insight: 16 and/or Perception: 12)

(Present)

Seeing the duel and his allies' reactions to it, Ednyss agrees completely with their sentiment and gives the entire encounter a wide berth. Leaning back, he slows down enough to reroute further around the fight. Meanwhile, the dwarf whispers a spell under his breath as he prays for them to be able to avoid this inconvenience. If either of the creatures appears to notice the quartet beyond a passing glance (and look hostile) Ednyss will maneuver around and position himself between whatever the creature is and Auger.

(All)

As you pass the melee, slowing to bank hard left around the combatants, the snake’s tail swishes furiously over your heads, and the giant twists completely around, its eyes landing on you momentarily before a sword made of compressed stone, its edges chipped to perfect sharpness, held in its other hand, whips up, and in two monumental strokes, decapitates the snake and a shower of black acidic blood sprays from the creature. Varielky appreciates the huge biped’s swordsmanship, but none know whether it was trained or born with the ability inherently.

The giant drops its huge prey, lifts its blade, reversing its grip, and plunges it through the beast, pinning its writhing corpse in place in the sand. Then, the gargantuan humanoid focuses on you, its expression calculating and menacing. You are now 100' from the giant, but, looking over your shoulders and intuiting that an attack may be coming, you blow your whistles strongly, causing the Tawekki to shoot forward through the sand, as you crouch to keep your balance and squint hard to keep the painful grains of sand out of your eyes.

As you shoot away from it, the giant lifts both of its cow-sized hands, and you see the sand to either side of it pull upwards in their wake, rising into hills thirty-feet tall before the giant steps firmly into a lunge and throws its arms forward, which signal causes the two sand hills to surge forwards toward you on either side. The mounds shoot ahead, drawing closer and closer, then clap together, in an attempt to block your path or smother you. 

(OOC: Please roll to control your mounts; post your actions.)

(Ednyss)

“YES I FOUGHT!,” shouts the old man, louder than necessary, and a friend grips his arm hard and stares into his eyes, growling, “Re-LAX, Gwafa! Easy!,” and Ednyss sees the old man’s expression harden as his lips curve in a deep frown. Glaring at his friend, he turns to Ednyss once more. “You are a stranger, I have not seen your face here before. You should know that the Shians are not slaves. We are not cows. We are not servants of the Empire. And our...daughters…,” and at this, he trails off, fighting tears. “Our daughters are not theirs to take for their own.”

(Mount Control: 20)

Auger madly attempts to control himself on the sandboard as he looks back and sees the sand hills somehow coming towards them. 

With some amazing luck Auger keeps himself on the board and modifies his course so as to bend away from the sand hills.

"We must continue and evade the giant!" he yells.

Mount Control: 16.

There's a momentary urge, a need to go closer and test the giant's might. It immediately disappears when Varielky sees how the giant slays the snake. It would not be any more of a duel for the giant than if she tried to kill a bee. Sure, it might evade her a few times, but once it gets hit it's over, and nothing it can do will truly matter. Some things were not meant to be fought by mere Humans. "Let's haste to our destination. We cannot let this one stop us or slow us down!"

18
27

You all maintain control of your mounts. The Tawekki are fresh enough and you had enough of a head start that you can race ahead, leaving the collision of sand dunes propelled by the giant to occur just behind you, a tremendous whooshing noise and movement of air, as the two hills smash together and intermingle, creating a single rising wave which lifts you from behind, and you must roll control again to keep your balance as the wave pushes the Tawekki at breakneck speeds away from the giant. 

For a moment, overwhelmed by the wave, you are buffeted by sand thrown over you from behind and are in danger of sinking, but your Tawekki respond, accelerating to pierce the sand’s surface, leaping through thin air, and you, pulled behind them, fly too, momentarily, before landing on your board firmly above ground as their whirling forebodies drill into the sands once more and pull you forward. 

Looking back, you see that although the giant has not moved, a hill has formed under it at its bidding, lifting it just enough so that its head towers over the dunes and it marks your progress, yet apparently, decides it cannot catch you. Instead, it motions for a flock of flying creatures to follow you, and they obey his will, flapping upwards just enough to see you, their flight matching the contours of the dunes. 

You surge forward, but the pursuers make up ground moment by moment, and you calculate they’ll catch up with you within a minute, maybe two. 

The flyers are odd-shaped creatures, not birds, not lizards. Bird-like in form, one meter long, with leathery wings spanning two meters across, they seem to glide on clouds of dusty sand which surround them as they go, and they shout after you in rough, croaky voices, in a tongue you do not understand. 

Ednyss cannot do anything when the birds are really far away, but as they begin to approach Ednyss shouts up to them in common, "Retreat now, before you are unable to." If the birds continue to approach, Ednyss touches his tattoo and draws upon a bit of his life force to send a wave of necrotic energy up towards a bird and suck out some of its life force as they ride away.

Toll the Dead - One of the birds must make a DC 17 Wisdom Saving Throw or take 2 Necrotic Damage
Control the Tawekki Check: 32

Seeing the bird-like creatures close upon them Auger yells out to the team, "We must go as far as possible before we engage these fliers or the giant will be upon us during the fight! When they get closer I will stop and begin attacking them!"

When they get into range

Holding out as long as possible Auger makes ready to stop his Tawekkis when he sees the creatures are within 200'. With the sandboard stopped, Auger can turn and fire a pair of twisting blasts into the flock.

(OOC: Technically Auger would do all this before Ednyss' Toll the Dead can go off - unless someone yells to do something different while the creatures approach. If Auger hears other instructions or ideas before they get into range he will listen and respond to them. Just a note to remind folks, Auger has none of the right proficiencies to control the Tawekkis so if he is to fight he must stop. If Auger hears "Keep going" he will, but he will also be unable to do anything other than turn) 

(Math - shouldn't the damage for Toll the Dead be 2d8/d12 at this point?)

Varielky glances backwards for just a moment to see the approaching birds, then focuses on the front again to avoid losing control. An enemy neither Benita nor her can reach, in a situation when Auger can't act. "Wait, I have an idea!" Varielky calls. "Don't stop!" Varielky then tries to steer the Tawekki towards Auger, then align speed and direction so they're riding right next to each other. (Mount Control roll, if needed: 9.)
"I can't fight in range, and you can't fight while steering. We can't stop though, or the giant might catch up to us. Besides, we shouldn't delay before reaching our destination. Every second might count." Varielky has a plan, but it sounds risky, and a little complicated. In truth, she has no idea if she can even do it, but the other option is to wait in place and hope to catch a bird when it comes close, which doesn't sound like a good strategy. "Let me take control over your board. I can control mine with one hand, so I might be able to control both at the same time. That will leave your hands free to do whatever needs to be done!"

Varielky hopes she could ride with one leg and one hand on each board (similar to skating on the snow, I guess?), then Auger could use the two other braces to stand behind her. If needed, Auger could use one hand to hold on to her, but he'll still have a hand free. If it's impossibly to make that arrangement while riding, she will try to steer her own board with one hand, and steer Auger's with the other without standing on it (similar to how one might hold a horse's reins while riding a different horse. I don't know if it will work with the Tawekki, though). If a roll to control the Tawekki is needed: 28.

(OOC: That would be right...)

Extra Damage from Toll the Dead: 5

(OOC: Auger agrees to attempt the maneuver with Varielky and will attempt to turn and fire a pair of Eldritch Blasts once a target is in range at 120')

<edit:>

Some attack rolls to move things along if needed.

Auger would target the same flying beast, pushing it 10' on each hit with Eldritch Blast

Beam 1: Attack: 11 Damage: 7

Beam 2: Attack: 27 Damage: 14

Benita, reading Varielky’s intent, brings her board around to Auger’s other side and helps steady him and undo his boot-bindings as Varielky, driving her tawekki one-handed, unstraps her own bindings with her free hand, and the three boards, side by side, bump and jostle and the harnesses threaten to entangle. But despite the dangers, sand blowing in your faces as you whoosh down a long, slow-turning alley between dunes while the strange flyers close on you from behind, you manage to link Varielky’s and Auger’s boards with human ties: the shield-maiden’s and the warlock’s legs. Varielky’s feet are now positioned in the forward bindings and Auger’s in the aft ones, and Auger holds onto Varielky’s belt for stability, facing forward just behind her. 

You barely manage not to fall off while making this maneuver, but you have not been able to maintain speed. One of Auger’s bindings is still loose and refuses to tighten in place, and before the warlock has a free hand to fire off a spell, the birds have already caught up with you, and passed you overhead and to either side. 

Ednyss’ Toll the Dead affects M1 as it passes, squawking in its strange language and ignoring the cleric’s warning, if it even understood it.

Glancing over your shoulders, you see the top of the giant’s head rising and falling as it takes enormous steps through the sand, following you at a distance of one thousand or twelve-hundred feet with the gargantuan snake’s body now hung across its shoulders.

Round 1

The enemies have the initiative. 

The flying creatures have broken around you, passing you to either side as you have careened forward, then each performs a looping roll, turning full around to face you as you come, and as they glide towards you with the breeze at their backs carrying them, you see their eyes glow, and time seems to stand still, as everything around you seems to get hazy, as if shimmering in the heat, and you are overcome with heaviness and the need, the necessity to lie down, to sleep. 

(OOC: each of them casts sleep at you, two castings against each of you. However, the spells are ineffective against you all, and the Tawekki are immune.)

You are now situated like so.

You are dashing forward with a movement rate of 35’ (=70’ dash). You may act before or after your mount moves.

The M’s are the flyers, and they are 15-20’ off the ground.

(Auger did not have an opportunity to cast his spell before now.)

Ednyss, Auger, and Varielky have advantage on their next roll, following successful sand-board stunts. (We’ll call the bindings switch a stunt.)

If you continue dashing, you will pass under the flyers, who must move forward next turn due to inertia and tail wind. The combat will then become a pursuit/chase. 

Please post Round 1 actions. 

"Keep us moving!" Auger yells at Varielky, then realizing that, of course, she is right there, he continues less loudly, "Perhaps I can get them to bunch up and then we can take a few out at once." After they pass under the strange beasts Auger sends his pushing blast into two of them, hoping to make them group up more tightly.

Auger

Ednyss touches his tattoo and launches a searing bolt of radiant energy towards one of the flying creatures as he tries to control his mount with one hand. "We need to clear a path so that they cannot attack us as we pass. Target the ones in the middle if you can."

(OOC: If Ednyss saw that they were flying in a formation like this, he would have started with the flyers in the middle... If it is, all the same, he probably would have targeted M6 with his Toll the Dead.)

Varielky doesn't answer, but instead just focuses on moving forward. Even if she weren't driving two Tawekki simultaneously, there's nothing she can really do against flying opponents. She might take a glance backwards for a split second to check what kind of ideas Benita might have.

(I actually did have an idea, but it's meaningless now that she's driving two Tawekki simultaneously. I'm not really sure how it works, though. Do we need to use an action to dash with the mounts, or do they dash by themselves? If they dash by themselves, can we use an action to dash even faster? If we need/can use an action to make the Tawekki dash faster, Varielky will do that. If not, she will simply dodge.)