The Sea of Starry Night II [IC]

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"Stupid useless crap bow... let's try this."

Darius whips another arrow out, this one shadowstuff, sending it hurtling towards the giant monstrosity.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

Slightly worried,"Well, I'm not sure if our first plan is going to work. Anyone want to try a plan B?"

Elthan, using the cloak, flies into the the air and begins to cast a familiar spell.

(OOC: Activating an ability is a standard action. Ethan will cast Ray of Enfeeblement next round. I just hope it doesn't target the flying guy.)

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

"Soul Father let thy fire melt this false ice and burn away impurity."

*Thokk draws his sword, and smashes the ice again*

[Phasm]

Lissa

Lissa carefully takes aim at the flying monstrosity, and lets loose with a shadowstuff bolt. While reloading with a similar bolt, she looks over at Sedryn. "Some of Lathander's blessing would come in real handy about now, Sedryn!"


OOC: Stupid undead and their immunity to sneak attacks. :P
Attack = 28 ::sob:: It could've been a crit!
Damage = 4

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

"Here!" shouts Achkby, now clearly frightened by the presence of the nightwing.

He begins casting a spell, weaving his hands through quick, intricate patterns in time to his low, sibilant chant. From thin air, he pulls a familiar mass of bluish acid that darts down into the ice, eating away at the solid part of the spring.

[OOC]Casting Melf's Acid Arrow where everyone else is trying to break through the ice. MAA damage (2d4=6)[/OOC]

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

Aeroz fires a bolt at the avian monster and takes a couple steps back, drawing a bolt and prepping his crossbow for a reload.

"Damn plane of shadow, damn shadow monster, damn dwarf rushing right into battle without a second thought"

[OOC: Green=elven]

[Combat OOC: To hit - 11+6=17; Damage - 7]

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

Lumpy eyes the frozen spring suspiciously, yet another strange incongruency popping up in this place. If someone was yanking them around, at least they were doing a good job of keeping things inconsistant. He takes station facing the former campsite and the approaching shadow-thing, his flail in hand but unraised,

"Ya know, if we can't get this thing cracked soon, I still strongly advise we keep going."

He didn't know what was after him, but he wasn't overly keen on finding out just what something so large was capable of.

"This ain't gonna be like fighting drow or ogres or whatever back home. We belong there. Now we're in HIS element"

[Dr._Bob]

Lissa and Darius send shadowstuff missiles into the nightwing. The giant bat-like shadowy creature shivers in agony as the magical projectiles strike. Aeroz aims well, but his missile passes through the beast as harmlessly as Fizahn's and Darius' earlier missiles.

Meanwhile, Callos and Thokk continue to try to crack the surface of the spring. Callos' burning hands melt whatever the sheet of flame touches, but the water almost instantly refreezes. Even Thokk's mighty blows only craze the icy pond. Achkby attempts to melt the spring with acid. Sulfurous steam rises from where his acid arrows bore into the ice.

One of the Elthans flies up into the air and blasts the nightwing with a ray of enfeeblement. The other Elthan hurls magic missiles at the monster. Neither seems to affect the nightwing much ...

The temperature in the air drops as the nightwing continues to approach, splintering trees as it moves forward. It has no eyes to speak of, yet it homes in on your party like a moth to a flame.

[hr]
Lissa turns to Sedryn, and Callos looks for Djital. Sedryn and Callos are standing at the edge of the spring with Taern, whose shortspear glows an intense white. All three of their faces are pale and grim.

Sedryn's eyes are dark as he calls out to Lissa. "The nightwing is here for us, not you! Save yourselves! We will draw it away! Come on, Thokk! You know that we don't belong here!"

Sedryn, Djital, and Taern turn and head deeper into the woods, without waiting to see if Thokk will follow.

The nightwing hesistates ...

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"Cursed unmeltable ice! Its almost like some great evil overlord is looking down at us and stopping every attempt we try at surviving! Djital I could really...Djital? Where the bloody blazes do you think your...!?

The necromancer stopped and stared as his friend turned and ran into the woods towards the nightwing. Turning to look at the other people who he had met then back towards the direction that Djital had run in, indecision warred on his face. Almost involunatarily he took a couple of steps in the direction his friend had gone.

[Phasm]

Lissa

Lissa freezes in the act of reloading her crossbow as she hears Sedryn's words. No... not again! Oh gods, I knew it was too good to be true... Aloud, she chokes out, "No... please..." The anguish in her dark eyes is heartwrenching. With sudden violence, Lissa shoves the crossbow mechanism into place with a loud click and whirls to aim at the nightwing once more. "I'm not losing you again! Not without a fight!"

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

Achkby wavers at the edge of the pool.

They mean nothing to me. They mean nothing to me. They mean nothing to me. They mean nothing to me. They mean nothing to me...

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

"Ach, I sure as hell belong here, its that creature that should not exisit. However, for the greater of the clan......"

"Little lad, lass, take care of yourselves."

"ALL OF YE, RUN NOW AWAY FROM THAT ACURSED THING"

Forefathers, welcome me once more

*Thokk Stands tall, delievers one final salute to the party as a whole, then charges the Nightwing*

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

"Dammit, we can take this thing!"

Darius' eyes gleam wildly again as he rapidly fires two shadowstuff arrows, taking a few steps back from the nightwing.

((I'll run if we're running, I'm with whatever for this one. Sorry I haven't posted since Thursday, I was away at ConnCon and will post more details about that in the IC thread.))

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

Do they not realize that if they just split the hell up one of them might survive? Probably Thokk, because he's the smallest... Fizahn surveys the havoc being wrought by the nightwing's approach. He'll freeze to death before he gets to the beast. [color=Blue"Bad idea Thokk! You've got no armor! If you just run away with us... Well, if it really is just after the people raised by the spring, you could probably run away and it would chase Sedryn, Taern, and Djital!"[/color] Fizahn loads another crossbow bolt and points it at the monster as he looks around at his companions. "If we are going to run that is."

OOC: I'm with whatever, but I really don't want to see Thokk die again. I don't remember if Thokk does have armor on, but I think I remember it being mentioned somewhere that he didn't.
To hit: 23 (16+7) Damage: 1 (1d6)

[Dr._Bob]

Many members of the party waver as the nightshade approaches. Some look towards where Sedryn, Djital and Taern ran off into the woods, others look in the opposite direction, while a few continue to focus on the enormous shadowy bat-like creature as it takes a tentative step in the direction of the fleeing trio.

Howling like a banshee, Thokk charges the nightwing, his robes flapping in the wind as he raises his sword over his head.

In a deceptively quick flowing motion, a shadowy maw appears - darkness within darkness - and clamps down on Thokk, like a shark biting a bluefish. With a shrug, the nightwing tosses Thokk aside - his white robes shredded by a dozen parallel lacerations. The robe becomes soaked in black blood almost instantly. With a cry, Thokk tries to slash at the nightwing to no avail.

Fizahn fires again without seeming to affect the creature, but Darius' shadowstuff arrows again hit their mark causing the same ripple of pain across the creature's body.

The nightwing seems to contract, then it unfurls its full wingspan, and launches into the air, heading in the direction taken by Sedryn, Djital, and Taern ...





OOC: As Thokk charges, he triggers an AoO, based on the nightwing's reach. The nightwing hits with a 30 (12 + 18) for 23 damage. Thokk attacks but misses with an 8.

Darius hits with a 27 (15 + 12) and 22 (10 + 12) for a total of 12 points of damage. Fizahn misses with a 23.

The nightwing moves away without triggering an AoO.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

Darius stares as the nightwing almost effortlessly tossed aside Thokk.

"Umm, actually, I don't think we can take this thing."

Darius hesitates...

[Phasm]

Lissa

"Great Golden Lords!" Lissa stares at the grisly spectacle of the nightwing. Then long-honed survival instincts kick in, and she grabs the nearest person's arm; in this case, Callos. "Come on, people! Move it! Don't let their sacrifice be for nothing!" With that, she puts action to words and starts running in the opposite direction as Sedryn, Djital and Taern.


OOC: Full-out run for as long as possible without getting fatigued, or until the party calls a halt.

[Frojoe21]

Aeroz

"I'm with Lissa here, lets run"

[OOC: Retreat action]

[Callos_DeTerran]

Callos

"I can't just let him go by himself! The least I can do is try to help! Djital get back here! That thing will rip you apart!"

Even as he stared wantingly back to where his friend had vanished he didn't resist when the gnome pulled on his arm. Stumbling after Lissa he couldn't help but keep looking back towards where the nightwing was.

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

As Lissa makes a break for it, so, too, does Achkby. Encouraging Callos along as he can, Achkby takes off as fast as his little legs can carry him.

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

Darius takes a step back, forward, hesitant. He looks at the fleeing party members, the nightwing...

"This isn't going to work, we need another way!"

Firing one last shot at the giant fiend, he swivels around and runs away with the others.

[Erikkin]

Fizahn:

If I had gotten some shadow bolts... There's no way we can fight that thing! Fizahn quickly turns and flles with the others. He constantly looks over his shoulder to make sure the nightwing isn't following them and nothing else has found them.

[sacreddeamon]

Thokk

*Waiting for the nightwing to take off*

"Ach, im following ye now, I dont feel safe without fine dwarven steel, and if I am going to die again I am going to take out as much as possible."

[bhdrake]

Lumpy

The taciturn orc snorts, "If yer coming, then come, but don't expect no one ta put up with ya if that damned bird comes back lookin fer the rest."

WIth that, he turns, clanking along loudly after the others, tucking his flail back into his belt.

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

Elthan just floats in the air, a little taken aback that his spells where useless.
"Hmm, are they moving down there? I guess I better follow them. At least it doesn't look like thier following the thing..."

[Dr._Bob]

The party retreats, heading in the opposite direction to that taken by Sedryn, Taern, Djital and the nightwing. Soon they are swallowed up by the forest. Callos is left with only a glimpse of his friend running through the trees away from the nightwing.

Elthan glides high above the forest, trailing after the party. From his vantage point he is able to see the dark shadow sailing just at treetop level. Observing from a safe ever-increasing distance, he sees the shadow "pounce" down into the trees. There is movement and a flash of light as the nightwing catches up with its prey. After a few moments, however, all is still.

Elthan shakes his head as he floats back towards his friends. Sedryn, Taern and Djital didn't have a chance ...

[hr]
As the party rushes away from the spring through the woods as quickly as possible, several members of the party wipe away tears. Losing friends is hard enough, but losing them twice is nearly unbearable for some of you.

You run and run and run, having no particular trail to follow. After a while, you pause to rest, noting that there are no signs of pursuit.

Sheyra is the first to notice the change. "Look at the sky!"

Toward the horizon bands of purple and orange are visible. As you watch, the sky becomes lighter and lighter. As it does so, you notice the trees begin to take on a more normal appearance. Leaf litter crunches underfoot as you walk towards the sunrise - the first one you have seen in weeks or maybe months ...

[King_of_GRiffins]

Elthan II

Dazzled, "Wow! Thats quite bueatifull, the transition from shadow to material. Interesting that the shadow plane overlaps here, though I see no reason why it shouldn't. Odder, though, is the the way it seemed we never left the caves of the underdark. No transition, just the sudden emergence of the sky."
hmmm... Well, where ever we are, I'm more worried than ever. I haven't a clue what the foresight was ment for, and we grow ever closer to approching the possible spot of it's happening. I wonder if Sheyra's aware of this?

[Zeal]

Hajih, Human Ranger

"We're free of the underdark, the plane of shadows?" He pulls off his hat and runs his hand through his hair.

Free, finally, free

[The_King_of_Durf]

Darius

The light hits Darius like a slap to the face.

"Are we... are we out? That's... that's the sun coming up. That's the sun..."

Darius stops walking and stares up at the great ball of fire rising in the distance.

"It can't be possible..."

[HempRope]

Achkby, Halfling Sorcerer

When Achkby realizes that he's returned to the real world of grass and sunlight, a huge grins breaks out over his face. He slows to a stop in a patch of light, and drops his pack to the ground.
I'm home.
He sinks to his knees, and literally bends over to kiss the ground.
Real earth, with real grass.
He rolls over on his back, and just wallows in the leaves for a little while, enjoying the feeling of plants scritching against his skin and sunlight warming him from above. As the sky lights up, he starts to laugh, and sits up.
He makes wide, sweeping gestures with his arms, trying to somehow articulate the magnificent feeling of freedom and... and rightness he has found, but eventually gives up.
Air... space... with light.
He sighs deeply, and just sits there for a moment with a smile on his face, enjoying the first sunrise he has seen in a long, long time.