Tears to Thousands (Part 2)
GAME: Merek casts Comprehend Languages. Caster Level: 5 DC: 14
Things are looking like they're headed for a fight. The oruch have one of your members down, and Iskandar has just attacked one of them as well. Though his swing went a bit wide of its mark. Things are more than tense, and one more wrong move is certainly going to spill everything into violence. Which it seems might be inevitable in any case. After all, if these oruch are the ones that destroyed everything on the way in... Your peace with them is hardly going to last.
Iskandar gives the Oruch a dark look and then lowers his fists. He's a pace or two away from the closest Oruch. Just far enough away, he feels, that he can always come back on guard the moment any of them so much as take a step in his direction. "Perhaps we started off on the wrong foot..." he offers the Oruch leader.
Merek notes some of the others are shifting to diplomacy also, especially with all the oruch which seem to be there with them, not easy combat as he holds up a hand a bit, then he seems to think a moment. He tries his best to communicate something to them, with his languages, "We. Come. To. Parley. With."
While Parlay is a good option, the fact that the situation has devolved as it has puts Lysa in a mind to negotiate from a position of strength. She steps forward, her own sword blade pointed at the Oruch commander (even if it needs to be pointing his way through others.) "Be being telling them that if they want to be being talking to us, then they need to be being releasing our Sunguard. If they do not, then they are being asking to fight."
"We come with death in our steps. Death and doom." The leader sounds tired, his eyes narrowing on Lysa's blade, on Iskandar whom had just attacked one of his men. Even as he speaks... something is stirring behind him. Their shadows shift and move as they are not meant to do. One of the ourch falls to the ground screaming and kicking suddenly, his shadow sucking him down inside itself. Then it rises up like a ghost, a oruch fully formed but black all over like an oil slick. The sun sets and the leader sighs. Another of his men falls.
"Our ancestors call for blood; seeking those we have lost. The world will burn until they are reclaimed." Another falls and then the shadow behind the leader rises upwards, sucks him inside itself until he's cloaked in it. Pulled in by it. Gone. <yrch-speak>
Iskandar looks between the chief and his men. His expression grows grim. He raises his bow but this time it is pointed at the shadows. "You can speak their tongue? Tell them to stand and fight," he asides at Merek. "We will fight alongside them."
Seeing the shadows do that to the Oruchs, Lysa steps back a half pace and places her sword in a defensive guard stance. Her sword is flaming and shedding light, "The shadows are the enemy then." she admits.
GAME: Lysa rolls melee: (7)+9: 16 GAME: Merek rolls melee: (18)+4: 22 GAME: Merek casts Sanctuary. Caster Level: 5 DC: 14
Seeing the shadows do their thing, Lysa reacts immediately. But the Oruch leader has no reason to -allow- her to tackle or grab him. So as she reaches out and cries out a warning.. that he likely does not understand.. the leader likely pulls back to avoid her hand.
Merek moves after the leader when the shadow seems to come at him. Unlike Lysa, he isn't attempting to pull him away, but instead touches the ork to place the protection of the holy plane upon him, "Eluna!" he exclaims, while a shield of light is shimmering about them, though whether it actually works is something he has to see.
GAME: Iskandar rolls 12: (2)+12: 14 GAME: Iskandar rolls 12-5: (1)+12+-5: 8 (EPIC FAIL)
Iskandar punches at the shadows. His blows seem to have no effect. It could be because he's trying to punch shadowy darkness without a true physical form. But it's just as likely that he's just missing wildly.
GAME: Merek rolls 3d6: (5): 5
Merek takes a stance while he nods to the leader, he then makes a motion for him to pray if he does that, then he twirls a staff he keeps with him. Not magical, it looks more like it has sigils of Eluna as well as magic, while he holds that up so that he can use it as a focus for his energy. The holy plane is filled into it and it resonates with the opposite of energy.
The man shifts his stance a bit and speaks to the others also, "Tell me if you need a blessing, but you'll need a weapon that can hit them first! Or wands! Whatever you have!" He unlatches then his belt so a few bottles of holy water will land upon the grass also, if they wish to use them if they have no other means or way. "If we can't take them here, we'll have to flee!"
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (4): 4 GAME: Lysa rolls fortitude: (6)+11: 17
Seeing her first effort to protect the leader fail, Lysa flickers her eyes to the shadow creature, to the leader, then back to the shadow creature. Without really thinking it through, she steps between the two just as said Shadow creature lunges.. it strikes her armor and passes through it as if it were not there and she grunts... but glares at the creature.
The shadows have devoured the oruch entirely, leaving only incorporeal shades behind. They look like the oruch though, as if they /were/ somehow the ourch that they had eaten. Except the one attached to the oruch leader. His is still unformed, licking at his heels and reaching for him like a hungry child clinging to a parent for food.
GAME: Iskandar rolls 12: (6)+12: 18 GAME: Iskandar rolls 12-5: (15)+12+-5: 22 GAME: Iskandar rolls 1d6+6: (2)+6: 8 GAME: Merek rolls 3d6: (9): 9 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (10)+6: 16 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (12)+6: 18 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (12)+6: 18 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (5)+6: 11 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (15)+6: 21 GAME: Iskandar rolls sense motive: (1)+8: 9 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Iskandar spends ONE point of PANACHE. GAME: Iskandar rolls 12: (8)+12: 20 GAME: Iskandar rolls 12: (13)+12: 25 GAME: Iskandar rolls 1d6+9: (4)+9: 13 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (3): 3 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (4): 4 GAME: Iskandar spends ONE use of CHARMED LIFE. GAME: Iskandar rolls fortitude+3: (5)+7+3: 15 GAME: Merek rolls fortitude: (16)+6: 22
The shadows move forward, hands dragging the life out of you, and the leader of the ourch goes down, thrashing as the shadow consumes him utterly and completely.
Merek lifts up his staff so he can bring more energies from the holy plane to bring into the shadows, while he watches as the ork leader's taken also, "No!" he exclaims, then he twirls his staff while he takes a stance. "Perhaps if we best them we can bring them back!"
GAME: Lysa rolls 3d6: (18): 18 GAME: Iskandar rolls 12-6: (13)+12+-6: 19 GAME: Iskandar rolls 12-6-5: (8)+12+-6+-5: 9 GAME: Iskandar rolls 1d6+9: (5)+9: 14
Iskandar still clutches his bow in one hand. But he knows better than to even known an arrow with two enemies so close. Instead he uses his other fist to punch at the shadow-creature, landing a blow while doing his best to sway and shift away from their attacks.
GAME: Merek rolls 3d6: (12): 12
Merek seems to be resolute and does not take any issue from the touch of the shadow, then he places his palm towards them as well as any others he can find as a whole gathered together enough, while he focuses the holy plane energies so he can take another clean resonance from them. With the combination of Lysa's energies as well as the fighting from Iskandar, the resonance on the shadows shifts the energies away.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (11)+6: 17 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (10)+6: 16 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (20)+6: 26 GAME: Iskandar rolls sense motive+2: (13)+8+2: 23 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (1): 1 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (4): 4 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d4: (1): 1 GAME: Merek rolls fortitude: (13)+6: 19 GAME: Lysa rolls fortitude: (7)+11: 18 GAME: Iskandar rolls fort+3: (2)+7+3: 12 GAME: Constantin rolls 1d20+21-3: (19)+21+-3: 37 GAME: Constantin rolls 1d20+16-3: (12)+16+-3: 25 GAME: Constantin rolls 1d8+11+6+1d6: (8)+11+6+(3): 28 GAME: Constantin rolls 1d8+11+6+1d6: (6)+11+6+(2): 25 GAME: Lysa rolls heal: (1)+9: 10 (EPIC FAIL)
Constantin steps up between Iskandar and Lysa, shield and sword at the ready. He thrusts the flaming blade through a shadow's 'head', then sweeps it in a follow-up through its body, disrupting its formal entirely.
GAME: Lysa rolls 4d6: (18): 18 GAME: Iskandar rolls 12-6: (6)+12+-6: 12 GAME: Iskandar rolls 12-6-5: (14)+12+-6+-5: 15
Merek lifts up his palm and he again calls upon the holy plane, then the energies will strike the shadows back away, while he shifts his staff so he can place it back into his pack, and pick up his holy water after while he speaks to Lysa, "Will he be okay?" he asks, looking to see if the others came back also.
Constantin lowers his sword, and looks towards the leader. "They tried to warn us in their own way." He exhales a breath, and looks down at their forms.
The bodies of the other oruch appear out of the shadows returned to the physical plane somehow. The leader seems to be the only oen alive and he gasps for breath, clearly on the brink of death. "The dead rode us like horses. Followed us and drove us to find our lost kin. We were not the only ones. Others like us walk in our steps. They bring the death that our souls wrought in the night. You deserve it. For failing to listen. For failing our kin. You..." His last words trail off, clearly words that meant something to him. Something important, but he's dead now, his life drained from his body. <yrch-speak>
Merek settles to a knee, and he places a hand upon the ork's face, so that he can brush across it, so he looks at peace. He then sighs while he takes a moment to offer the consecration to the gods, to Eluna, to see that the stars guide him to lands of the gods of his.
Constantin bows his head, and whispers a quick invocation to Althea, taking a moment.
Iskandar turns this way and that with his bow raised and pointed in the direction he's looking. After he's reasonably sure no other shadowy enemies are going to emerge from the night, he returns to the rest of the party. A pang of guilt crosses his face at the sight if the chief's body. "What did he say...?"
Merek speaks what was said in common, "The dead rode us like horses. Followed us and drove us to find our lost kin. We were not the only ones. Others like us walk in our steps. They bring the death that our souls wrought in the night. You deserve it. For failing to listen. For failing our kin. You..."
Constantin nods. "Then let us search -- and if we find an army of undead, we will do our best, then run."
Iskandar sighs. "Yes yes, if only I had listened. Looking back you always see the path more clearly, don't you?" He nods in agreement with Constantin. "We were sent to put a stop to this. And clearly our work here is not yet done."
-TBC