Playing in the Sandbox

Skaimos lowered his psionic shield. The naginataman had disrupted his concentration, meaning he couldn't pull off his plan just yet. He decided to hit send out a telekinetic burst of force toward his attackers. "You'll be mine soon enough, Thornhill."

Granted, the statement would have made more of an impact if he had been able to do much more than a "shove."

Combat:

Stats:

The naginata wielder has his raptor claw Alma before chasing after Tethe to slash into her back.

---

Minor deals 2 damage and Ongoing 1 damage (save ends) to Alma.
Standard deal 9 damage to Tethe.

I'm sorta predicting Tordek uses defender on that since his PF already got fucked up and I imagine DB actually wants the assistance this time. Up to you though 7/9. Nvm....

An arrow. Glancing blow. Nothing. The bastard's sword, just a scratch. Stay calm, seize your moment. The raptor. A nuisance, ignore it. It was an odd feeling. So angry and upset, but so calm and cold. She watched as the others fought, as if by some sixth sense she took account of the battle, but remained locked on to her target. Her voice was calm as she spoke. "Everything you have taken from me... I will take back 100 fold... I am nothing,and I will make you less..." She returns his nasty smirk. Sparks fly around her, and a wave of static explodes around her. It seems to do nothing, except energize her allies.

Spoiler:

Tordek took in the blows coming down around him. First was the leader, Thornhill, heading right for him and giving a good, solid blow. No problem, a good axe swing dealt at least as much damage. Second, the Nagitana wielder, who looked like he dealt a great blow to Tethe. A second axe blow to him, this one even more powerful, and filling the Dragonborn with the courage to keep standing even though several men were attacking. Third, the crossbowman who just attacked Tethe. Run to him first, then deal another blow. Not quite as strong, but it suffices. Tordek spun his axe again.

"You'll have to do better than that!" shouted Tordek, spitting on the ground.

---

Combat:

Stats:

The swordsman, in the midst of the flurry of attacks, slams Tordek with his shield, knocking him back.

Then Mike, Steve, and Earl fired their crossbows at Thornhill, the Archer, and the the Swordsman respectively.

---

Edit: Btw 7/9, you didn't take 2 damage from the ongoing since you had resist until the end of your turn.

Swordsman's standard dealt 5 damage to Tordek and he's Dazed until the end of his next turn.
Swordman's minor dealt 5 damage and Ongoing 1 to Cyrta.

Thornhill, the Archer, and the Swordsman took ?, ?, and ? damage.

Initiative & Adjacency

Spoiler:

The Street Performer Pixie started started up doing a magical dance of fire alongside her fiery companion cube... Which the opener of the dance has the fires hit all of the unnamed enemies. Cyrtanthus finishes the dance with kicking her ally like a ball and beans Thornhill in the face.

the mechanics of combat event:

status:

The Archer aims (minor) and fires upon Tethe and the Crossbowman aims (minor) and fires upon the pixie, both of them while they urge their raptors away from the fray of melee. At the last moment the cube dives in front of the crossbow bolt.

---

Tethe takes 3 damage and Ongoing 2 damage (save ends). (Reminder: The Ongoing damage will be halved as well.)
Cube takes 3 damage and Ongoing 2 damage (save ends).

Crossbowman takes 1 damage. Crossbowman is Bloodied. Crossbowman makes his save vs Ongoing 1 damage.

Tethe snarled at the rider who slashed at her, spinning around quickly and slashing somewhat awkwardly with her spear. Giving a somewhat weaker cut than she'd like to the rider before leaping back and readjusting her grip on the spear with a light twirl, sending the small amount of life energy collected on her blade flying towards the pixie.

combat stats:

"Awww, angry huh girl? Well, let's see if we can get you to really burn up!" Thornhill taunts Alma and takes a deep breath and them breaths out a blast of fire that hits Alma, Skaimos, and Tordek and to add insult to injury, his raptor claws at her as well (minor).

---

Thornhills fire breath attack deals 8 damage to Alma, 7 damage to Skaimos, and 9 to Tordek, as well as inflicts Blinded (save ends) on all three of them.
The raptor claw deals 2 damage to Alma and increases her ongoing damage to Ongoing Damage 3 (save ends).

Before the swordsman attacks, Tordek swings one last time out of spite.

---

Combat:

Stats:

Skaimos swore as Thornhill's fire blasted him. The flames had hindered his eyesight, and he did not wish to waste his "trump card" on the chance that it might miss. He took a deep breath and tried calming himself. He had failed on his last use of the force push, and was determined to get it "right" this time.

The good news was that he was able to summon forth more force than last time.
The bad news that he fired before his vision cleared and ended up only kicking up a burst of sand behind his opponents.

Combat:

Stats:

Fun fact for Alma: Blindness doesn't affect utilities.

The naginata wielder misses with his blade but, strikes Alma in the head with a backswing, sending her reeling and his raptor claws at Cyrta as it runs by.

---

Alma takes 2 damage and is Dazed until the end of her next turn.

Cyrta takes 5 damage and her ongoing damage isn't effected.

Spinning, focus, recover! Too much, too fast. Overwhelmed. Can't see. Can't act. The coolness begins to dissipate, but Alma does her best to hold on and remain upright, remain in the fight. Another buildup of static, and then a discharge. This one appears to do nothing, as the lightning dances along her skin. She retreats a bit from Thornhill. Until she regains her vision, she can't afford to attack him directly. Not yet.

Spoiler:

And just like that Tordek's plan fell apart. He could tell left from right at this point.

Calm down. Breath. Focus.

It wasn't helping.

---

Combat:

Stats:

The swordsman seemed to have gotten the knack of hitting the dwarf, so he did so again and then turned to have his raptor claw Alma.

---

7/9 Tordek isn't Dazed anymore, it ended at the end of his turn. Additionally it wasn't a save ends, so saving wouldn't have helped.

Swordman's standard deals 4 damage to Tordek.
Swordman's minor deals 2 damage and Ongoing 1 damage (save ends) to Alma.

Initiative & Adjacency

Spoiler:

Cyrta and her Cube attack this time the Crossbowmen... But the Pixie's attack mostly just grazed the enemy.

Spoiler:

status:

The crossbowman just laughs off Cyrta's pitiful attack, aims (minor), and returns fire. The archer takes a shot at Tethe but, it barely grazes her.

---

Archer deals 1 damage and Ongoing 2 (save ends) to Tethe

Crossbowman deals 6 damage and Ongoing 2 damage (save ends) to Cyrta. (Unless Tordek Defenders.)

He may be blinded. He may be bloodied. But he can still hear the whistling of arrows. He can still feel anger as they go for his companions. And Tordek can certainly hurl himself into their path.

---

I'll just pretend I made the save for Blinded instead. It still failed.

Combat:

Stats:

Tethe can feel energy welling up inside her again. This time however, she takes action consciously. Jabbing the point of her spear into the sand, magic washes out in a pulse, carving a magic circle into the desert as it goes.

There's a strange pull in the air as everything seems to get a little darker. The shadows of everyone present suddenly shift, away from the sun and towards the center of the circle, elongating as they reach out for it. When they reach the circle they begin to rise in a spiral and solidify taking shape. A feminine body rises from the shadows, grey skin and long black hair. Her eyes are closed and her arms are folded over her chest as she rises, clothed in a black kimono with a bright red butterfly pattern.

Once she's half-risen from the darkness she opens her bright red eyes, all six of them, and 8 towering black spikes shoot up around her. The spikes bend and come down, pulling the rest of her from the darkness. At her waist her body changes from that of a giant human to that of a gigantic spider, her body attached where its head would be. She unfolds her unnaturally long arms and leans over, her body nearly 20 feet tall counting the legs as she opens her mouth to let out a hiss, exposing her fangs hidden inside, nearly as long as a man's hand. She moves quickly over the desert sands, bridging the gap in an instant and drawing back her long, clawed arm. Slashing out at Thornhill and all his riders with her reach.

combat stats:

While the other's are taken aback, the crossbowman quickly fires bolts at the massive thing, distracting it a bit.

Thornhill growls, "What in the hells is that thing!? You guys take care of it while I finish off the other annoying bug!" as slashes at Cyrta but, gets his attack blocked by the cube which he slashes in half, sending one of the halves into the giant monster before it completely disperses as his raptor claws at Skaimos in passing.

---

Fire Giant was interrupted and weakened until the end of its next turn.

Thornhill's standard attack deals 13 damage to the Cube, killing it, and 1 damage to the Fire Giant.
Thornhill's minor deals 2 damage and Ongoing 1 damage (save ends) to Skaimos.

Skaimos looked over at the spider creature that Tethe had summoned. "Hopefully, that will hold their attentions for a while." He staggered a bit; his wound from earlier was still painful. But it would not be enough to stop him from using his "trump card". Of course, that was assuming that blasted naginataman wouldn't come and...

It was at that moment he glanced down, into the eyes of the raptor that the naginataman was riding. An otherwise dangerous creature, which had been made docile. He winced at the seeming similarity to Thornhill's...treatment of Alma. However, Alma had surprised him with her ferocity, and she was sure as hells ready to bite back. Perhaps this raptor was too.

"Come, my little friend," he said, reaching into the raptor's mind. "Let's see what you can do."

Combat:

Status:

The naginata wielder notes that Tethe seems to be surprisingly resilient so, he opts to sweep her legs out from under her and has his raptor claws at the horrible monster she's summoned.

---

Naginataman standard deals 2 damage to Tethe and she's Dazed until the end of her next turn.
Naginataman's minor deals 2 damage to the Fire Giant and it suffers Ongoing 1 damage (save ends).

Skaimos reached into the raptor's mind to find...surprisingly little. Oh, granted, there was a degree of intelligence, but everything seemed to be...dulled. There was no ferocity, no bloodlust, just a few simple action-responses drilled into its head over and over.

Master kick sides, raptor run. Master say, "Hya!", raptor bite person. Master tap side, raptor slash person with claw.

Skaimos felt a bit disappointed, having wasted all of his energy to a practically docile-

THERE IT WAS! A small ember, yes, but all the training and whipping hadn't let it die out fully. It was the instinct of a predator, a hunter, a master of fang and claw. It was the little voice that said, "I want meat, and I want to have it when I want! I want this lazy prey off of my back! I want to take off this harness and just KILL whatever stands in my way!"

Skaimos thought carefully. If he activated the feral instinct, there was a good chance that he would lose his control over the raptor as well. But then again, without the feral instinct, there were only the two "drilled" commands anyway.

Who knows, a little chaos might turn in their favor.

Skaimos first gave a "trained" thought to the raptor. "Master says slash that person with claw."

Minor Action:

And then, taking a deep breath, he hit the raptor's feral instinct HARD.

Standard Action:

The raptor's claws are met by the lightning dancing across her skin, absorbing the pain. She tries to keep track of what exactly was happening. Still couldn't see, so attacking was still pointless. By the sounds of the battle and the feel of the magic in the air, something big had just happened- summoning, Tethe had summoned another beast. That means they were still in the fight. If I can't fight him, then I'll have to trust the others to do it for me. Such a shame. She retreats yet again, remaining calm. As she does so, her fury subsided, and she felt herself cool; she changes, reverting to her normal state. She focuses, reaching out with her energy to touch... hmm. The monster was there- the summoning. It was a powerful force, for certain. And they needed power. She sends her wave of energy to the monster, willing it to strike, to beat them back. As she does so, she feels her reserves peak, and in one solid motion, releases it all in a single wave- one more much needed boost to her allies.

Spoiler:

The jorogumo lets out a loud cry, a mix between a woman screaming in rage and a screeching roar before swiping out again with its claws.

combat stats: