Vast Expectations (Part 2)
You'd landed in a field in the Vast, expecting the members of a group of Phurai Dae to have seen you, as expected given how hard an airship is to miss.
But it would appear that the Phurai Dae are not the only ones to've seen you. At first, it wasn't clear from the distance, but as the cloud of dust in the distance amongst the tall grass revealed to Jinks and Paenitia, the signs of movement you were seeing were not the Phurai Dae you werre waiting for.
"Giantkin," asserted Jinks.
More specifically trolls.
The crew isn't thrilled with the possibility.
Farland glances towards the sailors, saying, "Can't we just get back in the air?!"
The answer is apparently 'not so swiftly'. There was, unfortunately, some maintenance to be done before they can launch again safely. The question is whether or not you can get back in the air before they get here...
Faranmidahn frowns a little, not particular well favored by the terrain as it is.
Still, she has some measure of solution to the fabled constitutions of trolls at hand, but will it be enough?
“Hmmm," She calls to those with eyes-on, "How much time do we have?"
Razen also eyes the incoming fight, but there's an eager grin starting to spread across his face. His heavy flail leaves his belt and he steps a bit forward so that he's right on the edge of the ship. Ready to leap into the fray. "Can I convince you Farland to come into glorious battle with me?" His eyes have a shimmer of good will in them. "Perhaps we can start a fire and roast these trolls!"
Though that might roast the plains along with the lot of you...
Jinks already has his bow in hand and has abandoned the illusion of finery for the plain-and-simple fact of his... well, still pretty darned ostentatious armored and accessories. He might not be wearing as much jewelry in reality but it's still more than most would bother with going out into the rough-and-tumble world.
The gnome is humming arpeggios to warm up his voice and making sure his various belts, pouches, and sacks are hanging comfortable on his hips.
Lysos looks somewhat horrified at Razen... the idea of a grassfire clearly something that concerns her. "Well..." she offers, "If your fire gets out of hand.. I think I can deal with it."
On the one hand, trolls don't love fire. On the other, trolls do love rending innocent people limb from limb, or so the stories go. They're renowned for their heedless viciousness, after all, in a way that doesn't seem as mere stereotype.
The sailors are readying themselves as best they can. This isn't a military airship. It doesn't have magic cannon or ballista arrayed all around it giving it covering fire. It's just not that kind of airship. You can hear the mana-engines thrumming loudly below as they work to get them restarted.
But the trolls are looming closer, closer, closer, a half-dozen of them.
After a moment of watching the trolls, the debris they're kicking up and.. how much larger they seem to be getting, she pulls a slender wand from inside her sleeve and invokes it. As she does, a shimmering falls upon her form, molding itself to her dress before fading from sight.
GAME: Jinks casts Mirror Image. Caster Level: 10 DC: 20 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d4+3: (4)+3: 7 GAME: Faranmidahn casts Fireball. Caster Level: 9 DC: 17
"There are two possible outcomes." Faran notes as she straightens in the saddle, "They decide to rush us, in which case we have no choice, or they run away."
The dubiousness in her tone suggest she's fairly sure she knows which way that coin is going to land.
With the coded kicks, tugs on the reins, and other trained cues, the little Knight steers Torrent to one of the structures of the airship and starts to ascend to get a clearer line of sight. She twists in the saddle and brings up the hand not bearing her lance.
As she begins to speak anew, her voice gains a certain reverberation from the power she's tapping into, manifesting first as a brilliant pinprick of golden light at her fingertips, "Ravenous warmth and piercing light,"
A globular nimbus of golden light ripples into a sphere around it, "I free thee now from Order's Cage,"
She brings the hand up over her head as the power congeals into a brilliant golden ball of light, "Yield yon power to mortal fight,"
Then, in a sharp snap of her arm, she casts the incendiary force in an arc toward the perfidious giantkin, "And Unleash now thy deadly rage!" <halfling>
Going....
Going...
BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOFF!!!!
GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+4: (9)+4: 13 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+4: (10)+4: 14 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+4: (13)+4: 17 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+4: (16)+4: 20 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+4: (17)+4: 21 GAME: Whirlpool rolls 1d20+4: (11)+4: 15
The trolls see the fireball coming. It's sort of hard to miss, what, with the red dot coming their way and the fiery explosion. They do their best to spread out, but all of them are burned by it. Their famed weakness to fire is something they must be fairly used to being exploited, even if they're savage as savage can be.
GAME: Lysos casts Force Punch. Caster Level: 9 DC: 20 GAME: Lysos rolls 1d20+7: (5)+7: 12 GAME: Lysos rolls 1d20+7: (5)+7: 12 GAME: Lysos rolls 4d6: (11): 11 GAME: Lysos rolls 4d6: (14): 14 GAME: Razen rolls 1d20+6: (4)+6: 10 GAME: Razen rolls 1d20+1: (20)+1: 21 GAME: Razen rolls 1d20+1: (7)+1: 8 GAME: Razen rolls 1d8: (8): 8
Lysos steps backwards towards the airship, bringing her hand up in front of her as she does, her familiar method of gathering power from the Sea of Mana... only this time she takes extra time, gathering more, before releasing it. "Flambo!" Twin lines of white lance forth, briefly connecting her to the lead troll as the fire punch into its chest.
Razen pulls out his bow, it's an... ill used weapon frankly. Yet he handles it like the warrior he is. Dipping the tip in tar and having a crewman set it aflame. This done he launches the arrow into the air quickly followed by a second. The second actually hits a troll and Razen grins. It might not be as effective as the - admittedly terrifying woman beside him with her rays of fire - but it's not nothing.
GAME: Razen rolls 1d6: (6): 6
If we're honest, they weren't expecting fire balls. Most ships don't carry wizards capable of throwing it. The fire arrows are a bit more anticipated. Either way, the trolls make a move. They spread apart further, with the first one, having taken two searing beams and and flame arrow, stumbles and drops into the grass for a moment before righting himself and getting moving again on all fours toward the ship.
The other troll works his way to the left of your ship, coming in at a different angle. They have no intention of letting themselves get hit by another big blast like that, even as they leave a trail of flaming grass behind them.
GAME: Jinks casts Haste. Caster Level: 10 DC: 20 GAME: Jinks spends ONE use of BARDIC PERFORMANCE.
One of the trolls unslings some kind of leather satchel made from ... is that a face on it?
That's a face on it.
...so, yeah. A certain kind of leather.
It continues rushing forward, breaking from the others with the satchel in its arms.
Jinks narrows his eyes from atop his high ground on the rock. Trolls. Stinky, gross, smelly, dumb, oversized trolls. Not that he's biased.
The gnome begins his song carrying a wordless melody with his voice, the notes leaving his mouth to frolic at the edges of the Hymn. Potential is realized in those moments and resolve bolstered. The world comes into sharper focus.
One ring-heavy hand sweeps through the air, then, and he strums his gnimble digits through the Weave in search of a specific thread. The bard tugs, nods shallowly, and twirls a finger around the strand stretching between the party arrayed next to the airship. His song continues and he taps out the beat, accelerando, and makes it seem as if time passes more slowly.
GAME: Faranmidahn casts Fireball. Caster Level: 9 DC: 17 GAME: Faranmidahn rolls 9d6: (35): 35
Welp...
They're not running away.
Her arm crossing over her heart in the followthrough of her cast, Faran stares balefully out toward the encroaching trolls, their pace undaunted.
"Try to keep them from damaging the ship, maintain what range you can!"
With that, she snaps the reins to prompt Torrent to tear down along the support to the ground and off to one side.
The ghastly accessory brings the Purple Rose's point of aim from a cluster to the bearer, alone and her hand comes up to a repeat of her pyroclastic spell, "Ravenous warmth and piercing light, I free thee now from Order's Cage, yield yon power to mortal fight, and Unleash now thy deadly rage!" <halfling>
The fireball flares bright upon the single troll, to levels of effect that are as yet unclear.
Fortunately, it does not appear that the satchel holder's bag is explosive. Or is that unfortunately? Either way, he's doing *something* with it.
A large troll in the back, seared and injured but hardly defeated, pushes through the burning grass and smoke and rushes off to the side, alongside another one, trying to avoid getting fireballed again. They're not loving it, but it seems they think your meats are worth the price.
The airship crew has armed themselves, now, and they're getting ready for what they assume is an inevitable boarding.
They're screaming orders, more than a few of them frightened.
GAME: Lysos casts Dimension Door. Caster Level: 9 DC: 21 GAME: Razen rolls 1d20+6+3: (6)+6+3: 15 GAME: Razen rolls 1d20+6+3: (15)+6+3: 24 GAME: Razen rolls 1d20+1+3: (12)+1+3: 16 GAME: Razen rolls 1d8+1d6: (8)+(2): 10
Razen shoots another bevy of arrows, but this time aimed at one particular troll. He doesn't like the look of the bag its carrying. Magical. He can practically smell it. Like the magic all around him. That's not terrifying. (It is.)
The first of the trolls hits the side of the airship. Though significantly injured and with his regeneration hampered, he leaps onto the side, claws piercing it. He starts to climb.
The same is true of the fifth troll in the pack, having weaved its way there too. There's guttural hissing, and snarls that speak of revenge.
Lysos decides she doesn't like how close these trolls are getting. She looks back over her shoulder just as Edinaz appears on the airship, and the relief is plain on her face. "Egressa," she says, then steps as though pushing through a curtain. Her soft booted feet touch down on the deck of the airship behind Edinaz. "About time you woke up!" she tells him.
GAME: Jinks spends ONE use of BARDIC PERFORMANCE.
GAME: Jinks rolls weapon11+3-2: (7)+13+3+-2: 21 GAME: Jinks rolls weapon11+3-2: (5)+13+3+-2: 19 GAME: Jinks rolls weapon11+3-2-5: (2)+13+3+-2+-5: 11 GAME: Jinks rolls weapon11+3-2: (16)+13+3+-2: 30 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d4+2+4+1+2: (4)+2+4+1+2: 13 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d4+2+4+1+2: (3)+2+4+1+2: 12 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d4+2+4+1+2: (3)+2+4+1+2: 12 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d4+2+4+1+2: (1)+2+4+1+2: 10 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d4+2+4+1+2: (4)+2+4+1+2: 13
The Fourth troll bursts out of some of the spreading fire and rushes around the edge of the airship, reaching it at last and hooking his claws into its side.
The trolls are close enough now that the gnome brings up his bow as he continues to sing. As Jinks moves his form comes out of step, layering, shifting, stuttering. It's hard to resolve the bard's actual position as they seems to be more than a half-dozen of him at any given time.
A wide, toothy smile flashes on all eight faces as his hands dip into his quiver for the first time (short of practice) in quite some time. "Coyote laughs," the chorus offers between a quick breath and a rest in the song.
The bow issues a rapid twanging and a volley of little needle arrows whistle briefly through the air. Most fade almost immediately reaching the end of the protective illusion but five are split between the closest giantkin. One falls.
GAME: Faranmidahn casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 9 DC: 15 GAME: Faranmidahn rolls 5d4+5: (14)+5: 19
It's not an ideal situation, she's getting, but Faran's companions are handling themselves well and so, she trusts them to handle the climbers, while she moves to keep the face bearer from joining their ranks.
She traces a figure eight with her fingertips, trailing a mote of incandescent white as she chants, "By will in strife, I send might's shards, go forth and strike!" and a spray of five darts of force arc out into the troll, slamming home into his body. <halfling>
She couches the lance and nudges Torrent to close the distance with the offender, then, intending to draw his attention her way.
GAME: Lysos casts Telekinetic Charge. Caster Level: 9 DC: 21 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d20+17: (18)+17: 35 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d20+13: (17)+13: 30 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d20+8: (16)+8: 24 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d20+12: (10)+12: 22 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d20+7: (6)+7: 13
"Ollyoop!" Lysos says, perhaps a bit too excitedly, as she focuses power into her hand and then presses it against Edinaz's back. And then the half-orc is flying through the air, straight towards the nearest troll!
The trolls are now all at the ship, at least, even if none of them have made it on it. With one of their number down for the count and others significantly injured, they do not appear deterred at this time.
GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d8+8: (8)+8: 16 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d8+8: (3)+8: 11 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d8+8: (6)+8: 14 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d6+8: (1)+8: 9 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d20+15: (10)+15: 25 GAME: Edinaz rolls 1d8+8: (3)+8: 11
"I was having such a nice dream about dancing, too..." Edinaz blinks a little, pulling out his swords -- and then he's flying through the air, laughing wildly. "WHEEEEEEEEE"
He lands with a strike that gouges across the troll's shoulder, then follows up with a flurry of quick stabs and wrist-cuts inside the troll's guard, poking holes in its guts and cutting tendons. It's a quickly-developing mess.
-TBC