Kyriel backs up into the courtyard (next to Rita), there's no way she wants to get caught in the doorway with this thing charging down on them.

As she does so, she realizes the Byron has an excellent idea--not being on the ground with this thing. The only problem is that horses can't climb. When Culann tells them about the door, she nods. "Get the horses in there and close the door!" Hopefully that will provide enough cover for the horses while everyone deals with this beast.

She shoulders her bow and quickly pulls a rope with a leather-bound grappling hook out of her pack. A couple of quick swings and she sends the hook up to the roof. "Everybody up! I don't think we want to be on the ground floor for this dance."

The beast galumphs towards them, at high speed.  It reaches the entrance way.


Bryon climbs up to get a safer vantage point, Kyriel pulls back and then follows Byron up, and Rita “preps” Riordeg with a spell.  Culann finds another door... in fact, Culann sees a lot of them, all facing the courtyard, all leading to the various chambers named previously.  The nearest one leads into the workshop.  There are some old mill stones and old lumber boards here.

And the creature charges right into them.  Bryon launches an energy blast at it, while Rita uses Doom.

And then the bad news...

Rita's spell didn't seem to have effect.  Bryon's spell had... two effects.  It clearly hurts the creature, putting a small injury into its hide, but at the same time, something is turned around- Bryon feels a jolt of burning magical energy, feedback from her own spell!  It hurts- not life threatening, but painful.

Stannos uses an attack spell and has a similar experience.  He wounds the creature, but at a cost.

“It turns magic!” he shouts.   No longer trusting in magic, prepares to hold his ground and meet the charge alongside Riordeg.

 

(OOC: Ben. At little confused as to where Kyriel is at the moment. In the text, you have her climb up. But in the map she's next to Rita. I've put in a couple of if-then conditionals.)

Kyriel calls out to Riordeg, Rita, and Stannos "It shouldn't be able to turn fast! Flatten against the walls next to the entrance!"

If she's up top, she'll run along the roof and drop down behind the creature. Nocking an arrow, she lets it fly into beast from above and behind as it charges into the confining corridor.

If she's next to Rita, she grabs Eadoin's cloak from her pack and waves it as she runs away from the beast. Hoping that she's got its attention, she puts the cloak on and activates the shape change to squirrel form just before she dodges hard left.

Culann moves towards the large doors to in the wall O17 expecting the others to be following her away from the beast.

Bryon backs up along the roof, and getting a running start she leaps off. Holding her spear pointed down she intends to use gravity and steel to end the monster's life. The odd part, she is laughing. Even when her bolt of energy was turned back on her she remained in high spirits. She obviously has no concept of her own mortality.

Culann tries to get them to fall back into the buildings, but Kyriel and Byron are making a “forward defense” and Riordeg and Stannos are not going to leave them.

Kyriel scurries across a roof, and lands behind the thing, and turns to see Byron do her crazy leaping attack thing.

Stannos sees the same, and is momentarily aghast, but then, the thing is charging into him and Riordeg.  The beast forces them both back, Stannos more than Riordeg as Riordeg has been strengthened, and in moments there is a fierce battle, the creatures long horns vs Riordeg’s and Stannos’s weapons.

Riordeg is the stronger, but Stannos is suddenly driven by a primal instinct not to let Byron be mauled, and presses an attack, bloodying the thing, though both he and Riordeg are injured in the process.

Byron has a hard time- the thing has horns growing in various places, not just the head, and in jumping on it, she has to evade them.  Surprisingly, she hits it, hard, driving her spear in.  But in a moment, the creature bucks, squashing Byron against a wall.  The wall cracks.  Byron feels much flatter, and nauseous.

Kyriel is lined up for an easy target, though.  With the thing squeezed into the entranceway, she shoots at the beast’s large and unprotected hindquarters, and a pair of arrows sinks in.  They make terrible wounds which would make sitting very uncomfortable, if the creature ever tried to sit.

Byron and Kyriel together have hurt it worse than the “boys” have, but the creature doesn’t seem to be registering individual threats.  It concentrates most of its attack forwards.

Culann is in the barn, but feels the whole structure shake with the fury of the battle.

 

For reference, a typical farmstead of this culture, with the "everything faces the center courtyard" style.

Kyriel is very surprised when Byron jumps directly onto the creature. Given how spiky the thing is, that's pretty daring and dangerous. She sighs when Riordeg and Stannos stand their ground; that's almost as dangerous as jumping on spike.

She moves forward to O14 so that she's directly behind the creature. She pulls her rapier and starts poking the creature's vulnerable backside. She doesn't want to hit anyone else with her arrows, and now that they're engaged in hand-to-hand it makes her shots a little risky.

She calls out to the ones fighting it in the front. "Fight defensively! We can wear it down. The last thing we need is for someone to get badly injured this early!"

Bryon drives her spear into the creature, but having to turn and twist to avoid its dragon like spikes makes hitting vital organs impossible. For her troubles she gets thrown into a wall, which cracks and she flattens against it. "Ugh...by the gods you are a tough one aren't you?" Her question to the beast is made less jovial by her sudden wave of nausea, and instinct kicks in, causing her to invoke an ability she had only used a handfull of times before. In an instant she is on the roof again, doubled over and vomiting. Left behind is an illusory copy of her, which smiles and tries to stand and dissolves into nothing.

Flees the scene - to a rooftop square

Helpless for the moment she wipes her face with the back of her hand. Looking over the ledge she sees her spear still lodged in the thing's spine. A smile finds its way back to her lips as she realizes she gave as good as she got. She had to shake off the nausea before she could make another serious attempt at killing the thing.

Seeing that magic doesn't work against the creature, Rita takes a step back to K14, takes out her crossbow, and shoots bolts (non-magical) at the monster. Bryon obviously needs healing, but she is on the roof now, meaning Rita cannot reach her.

Riordeg is more than surprised when Rita suddenly fires her crossbow past him.  Of course, having not felt the magical feedback from the creature, he doesn’t know…

But doesn’t Rita normally use her spells to aid in a battle?  And this only as last resort?

Past the creature, he and Stannos can see Kyriel attacking where the creature is least able to protect itself, stabbing into its prodigious gluteal muscles.  The beast is not happy with this, and tries to react, but the two warriors quickly see the handicap it has.

“Keep it in the passageway,” Stannos shouts.  “It can’t turn!”

But that is easier said than done.  It is a fierce opponent, especially from the front, where they happen to be.


Bryon manages a difficult climb.  It was much easier before she was wounded, and there was no ferocious beast to contend with.

Kyriel takes advantage of her position to the best of her ability. When she has a chance, she pulls a dagger in addition to her rapier. She hasn't done something like this often, but the possibility of putting this thing down quickly before anyone gets seriously hurt is a priority. Avoiding its spiky tail, she keeps stabbing at it with both the rapier and dagger.

Bryon's spell takes her to a nearby roof, and below, in the confines of the entrance way, the fighting continues.

They've figured out the winning tactic, though.  Riordeg and Stannos keep the beast confined, and it cannot turn to face Kyriel, who is able to attack the creature from behind almost at will.

The tide is turned- the creature is losing, and it seems to know it.

From her position behind the beast, Kyriel does what she can to take the heat off of Stannos and Riordeg. They'll have problems if the beast charges them or moves quickly. Her rapier continues to wreck havoc on the beast's exposed backside.

 Her dagger however, has a much different goal. Carefully she tries to spot how the beast's muscles work in order to find the tendons. That is the goal for her dagger. To hamstring the beast and relieve at least some of the pressure off those facing the horns outside.

On the roof Bryon's wobbly legs manage to keep her standing. From her bag a nose emerges, but the rest of Scrumff is secured and not willing to exit. "My Lady, may I suggest you not do that...whatever it was...again?"

She quipped, "You may suggest anything you like, dear one, but I had too much fun to never do that again. You know me, try anything once and if I like it, I try it again."

A bit more of his face emerged, but not much. "Then may I ask you put me aside the next time you mean to do something so insane?"

She grins ear to ear, "Absolutely." She reaches into the bag and withdraws her trusted mace, then dropping the bag and turning to get a running start.

Scrumff tries to wiggle free, "No My Lady, PLEASE. Your hurt and..."

She interrupts him as she squares herself for a second run at this, "Fortune favors the bold!" She shouts this and takes a dead run at the edge. Her leap this time is meant to bring her in line with the others who are face to face with the monster wolf. If she manages not to break her neck she will begin clobbering the thing with her mace.

Once the creature is wobbly, Riordeg switches back to the offensive again.  Still bolstered by Rita's spell he is exceptionally strong, and when he hits he delivers a powerful blow.

A couple of those, and the horrible horned whatever-it-is can take no more.  Unable to lunge forward anymore, it leans against the wall and begins to sag, but still snaps at anything too close.

By the time Bryon is ready for a second charge, the creature is not so ready to react.  She smashes it on the neck.

Stannos has the stunned look of a man who has just realized that his date is insane.  Not in the mild, fun,  still-decorates-room-with-hello-kitty-although-she's-thirty way, but in the scary, serious, on-three-different-medications way.

"What are you doing?" he asks in a quiet, serious, and slightly bewildered voice.

Bryon is slightly out of breath, or breathing hard for other reasons. From the look on her face more likely the later than the former. She opens her mouth wide and laughs heartily. She walks over to him, intending to touch him. "Winning sweaty. I'm winning. That thing was attacking my friends. It had to be killed."

She looks at him in a heated way. "Come, I have too much energy and nothing to do with it."

Once the thing is down, Kyriel leans against the side of the cooridor breathing a little heavily. Even though she's in pretty good shape, running and fighting like that isn't her usual modus operandi. Not only is it hard work, but it's messy too. While she has a chance, she tries to recover any arrows that she used.

She knows that she needs to clean up before too long. However, she has a couple of questions now that the thing is dead. Before Byron steals Stannos away she asks "It turns magic? Could it be the skin? It might be interesting to see if a cloak made from its skin would have that ability."

The problem is, that she doesn't have much skill with skinning. "I will help skin it, but I think someone else would be better at figuring out just how to do it."

Places like this probably had wells somewhere. "I'd guess we'll find a well here. Might be a good place to wash up and at least get something to eat."

OOC: What time of day is it?

Bryon gave a face that said "icky" as Kyriel mentioned skinning the beasty. She looks at Stannos, "If you skin that thing, you had better wash up before you join me."

It is afternoon, and the beast is dead in the entranceway to the farmstead.

Stannos does not look happy about having part of his world view disrupted.  Yes, he knows that Bryon is “into him”, but she doesn’t act quite right.  Yes, there are women warriors, Kyriel is one, but… does she have to jump so enthusiastically into the fray?  And now, bruised up and battered as she is, she is supposed to breathe heavily and tell him how horrible and awful it was and hint broadly about the comforting she will need, not simply make an open and public invitation.

It’s just not supposed to work like that.  Stannos is supposed to be calling the shots… at least, the obvious ones.  Very disturbing.

”Aren’t you injured?” he asks, slightly hoping that whatever it is will just wear off, any moment, and Bryon will be much more… he looks over in the direction of Culann.. well, not like her, she’s so easily distracted… but like how women are supposed to be.

”Maybe we should take care of injuries first?”  One thing Stannos knows… blood and bruises are not compatible with romance.

Meanwhile, Kyriel looks over the creature.  It’s certainly got the most repulsive, vile looking hide she’s seen in a while, and she’s seen some nasty things.

Culann, meanwhile, has toured some of the rest of the farmstead, possibly in shock that the others actually stood and fought that monster.  Is that what happens on these missions?

  Like many places out here, the farmstead was deliberately abandoned, not lost and forgotten.  Most of what could be taken easily was removed, long ago.  Still, she finds four large jars of Bonasi The Herbalist’s Hoof Cream.  At least, that is what it says on the jars.

Upon a closer inspection of the creature, Kyriel mirror's Byron's expression. "I haven't seen anything that nasty since I saw some of the livestock in Lutetia Parisiorum. I'm not sure that hide would be worth anything."

She's one of the lucky ones, having not taken any damage from the beast during the fight. "I think healing up may be a really good idea. How does everyone feel about staying here until morning? It's afternoon, and we might not find a better place to rest before tonight."

Places like this are a mixed blessing. More comfortable than sleeping out in the open and more defensible. They also pose the problem of being obvious places to stay. Not only that, but spike's carcass is certainly going to draw some attention. "We'll probably want to get this" she nudges the defunct spike with her foot "out of here if we're staying the night."

She arches an eyebrow at the others. "Any idea what this thing was? I've never seen anything like it!"

Seeing the bounty that Culann has found, she nods. "That may come in handy when we get the villagers on the road. The horses or their livestock may need it. Anyone got an idea of how to use it?"

OOC: Did any of Rita's crossbow bolts hit the creature?

"The creature turned back spells, which is why I used the crossbow against it," she explains to Riordeg.

"Yes, we should take care of injuries first." Rita casts healing spells on every party member who is wounded.

She has no interest in skinning the creature or taking any part of it with them. But she does get a close up look at it, trying to determine if it is demonic (Knowledge Religion or Knowledge Planes roll).

"I strongly recommend against keeping any part of this creature. It could be demonic, and we really don't want to be carrying part of a demon with us."

She will help move the creature out of the farmstead.

"The hoof cream could be useful. I think we should take it but hold off on using it until we find someone who can confirm it really is what the jars say it is.

If we spend the night here, we must take watches. Someone or something could come in and attack us at any time."

In reply to Ben (msg # 79):

Culann emerged from the building upset that the others had chosen to be as rash as they had been. She was sure they'd follow here to a better tactical position. Their actions simply demonstrated a degree of rashness which she would factor into any future proposals she'd make. The skirmish was short and sharp after which she'd explored the section she was in, locating four large jars of Bonasi The Herbalist’s Hoof Cream. Carrying these back to the others placing them on the ground.  Standing she faced the others Now then I think we should discuss this situation, there obviously needs to be some understanding established here, it is necessary to circumvent Least a repeat of this happening. Firstly I’d like to dispel any thought that I simply left any here to deal with this creature; this is not my intention or design.

Bryon went over and pulled her spear out of the creature. Seeing it stained she stomps and throws a bit of a tantrum. "Look, LOOK my pretty new spear is all icky." She raises her eyebrow at Culaan who emerges from the shelter. Culaan struck her as one of those girls who was afraid to break a nail. She waves off the comment about abandoning them. "Your a wizard, and this thing turned back magic. You would not have hurt it and may have ended up hurting yourself. You did the right thing. Now I don't suppose you can cast that wonderful spell that cleans things, can you?" She nods to her spear, hoping the girl had some use anyway.

To Stanno she simply shrugs, "We have a priestess with us. She can heal me and then you can put a few more strategically placed bruises on me." She leans in and whispers, "Don't worry about it sweaty, I like the rough stuff." And then winks.

She looks up at the roof then lays her spear on the ground in front of Culaan. "I'll be right back. Its sharp don't cut yourself." Then she vanishes, leaving an illusory copy to laugh and fade away.

On the roof she retrieves her handbag. "Its over now fraidy-cat. You can come out." As she throws her bag over her shoulder she pats Scrumff on the head. He huffs and goes back to his hidey hole. She teleports back to ground level, at which point Scrumff climbs out and goes over to Culaan, "Please allow me to apologize for my Mistress. She does get ahead of herself. She also sometimes lacks common sense or a healthy sense of self preservation..."

Bryon shouts over at Scrumff, "I can hear you!"

He waves her off, "Any discussion of tactics, I'm afraid will go in one of her ears and out the other. You'd do better discussing such things with me and then letting me brow beat her into submission..."

Bryon shouts again, "I can STILL hear you!"

Scrumff ignores her and stands, arms crossed, waiting for Culaan to discuss tactics. Bryon meanwhile goes to Rita for some TLC...

Kyriel gives Rita a quick nod when she comments on her switching over to crossbow. "Good thinking."

She knows that the wizards at the academy will find anything that interferes with magic interesting the hard part will be to find a way to preserve whatever she collects for the extended period of time that they'll probably be gone. In light of this and to avoid potential strife in the group, she forgoes collecting any specimens from the creature.

"Of course Mater. We should have watches. I will take the middle of the night."

She gives Culann a bit of a perplexed look. "You did a very important task. You kept the horses safe; if we're to return much from the tower to Scolo, we need the horses.." She pauses for a moment. "The creature was already chasing us. Whether for food or territory, it had targeted us for something. There's a time to run and a time to fight. I figured that since it was still chasing us, that we had to start fighting."

Byron's antics with Scrumff are interesting, but she doesn't say anything since she can only understand one side of the conversation.

Once the corpse is moved a couple of hundred distance from the building with the use of one or both horses, she continues the examination of the farm complex. Maybe some other things were left behind?

OOC: Ben- did spike have carnivore teeth or herbivore teeth

Rita is uncertain as to why Culann seems upset. Circumvent a repeat of this encounter? The monster had pursued them, which meant they had had no choice but to fight it. The possibility that Culann left the group to fight the creature without her had not even occurred to Rita.

"I don't think we have the choice of avoiding more encounters like this," she responds to Culann. "That thing came after us; it was in the area, meaning we would have to fight it sooner or later. This area is filled with monsters, and most of them probably aren't the types that will ignore anyone in their territory. We fought the creature on our terms instead of waiting and letting it sneak up on us in the middle of the night."

Thankfully, Bryon and Kyriel express the same thought about Culann having done the best she could under these circumstances, where magic wouldn't help in the fight. Though she hopes Bryon is not serious when she asks Culann for a spell to clean her spear. Spells should be saved for occasions when they are really necessary, not used for convenience. At least that is the way Rita was taught to use them.

"Culann, I agree with Bryon and Kyriel. There really wasn't anything you could do against this creature. Casting a spell could very well have put you in harm's way since it turned spells back upon their casters. You have nothing to apologize for.

Bryon, I don't know how many spells Culann has, but I would recommend they be saved for those times when they are really needed. Magic isn't necessary to clean a spear. Of course, it is ultimately Culann's prerogative to choose how she uses her spells.

I do need to sleep to regain my spells, so I would prefer a watch either at the beginning of the night or at the end," she says.