Timothius looks torn. On one hand, powerful tiefling vs Tim's sisters. On the other hand, Ter going to possibly certain doom and children about to be sacrificed. "If you need me, scream! I'mma keep Terdisas alive! Don't forget your healing potions!" He runs after Ter.

Speaking of whom, Terdisas comes upon a ritual with a bunch of people strapped to tables. Coming out of a portal is what looks like a tiki mask with arms and legs (We're looking at YOU Banished Pantheon). And echoey african-style voice speaking a foreign language can me heard coming from the thing.

Back to Mittens, what she didn't know was the guy used last action to activate second wind. So nobody hit him last round and he got some HP back. This round, however, he creates a blazing sword and looks like he's gonna swipe at Mittens. Instead, he stabs it right through his own gut in order to stab Raichel behind him.

She squeals, widening her eyes.

And this would be part of the reason Mits went with sword mage!  Damage reduction when enemy attacks her sibs!  Woohoo!  Nevertheless...

"Looks like my allies have already discerned the location of your ritual circle, villain," Mittens retorts, "And without the chickens you counted before they hatched ritual, you'll fall by my blade soon enough!"

She swipes at his wrist!

  Terdisas kind of stops short at the whole giant... uh...  Wut.  "... I am at a loss for words."   Superbird steps up to the plate, "Chirp, Your head are huge! That means you have huge face!  Zap and Freeze! Zap and freeze your Face!" Thank you, superbird.

  The sorcerer mans up and heads to get between giant FACE and victims while firing off more Dragon Frosts.  Sure, only push 1.  But every little bit helps.

  OOC Style: Mentions of Blazing sword in turn, always Remind me of 'why don't they start with the sword?' which in turn reminds me of Voltes V.  Where IN SHOW the Pilots ask themselves this, and the enemies go to efforts to screw with 'Sword = The Win'.  "Why aren't we using the sword?"  "Giant Samurai monster, duh" commence side trip for bare hand blocking training montage that will somehow translate to the giant robot.

The enemies also had several 'screw with transformation sequence' plans.  And that's all within like the first 12 episodes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:29, Sun 18 Mar 2012.

This tiki-masked Gee'nos dude seems to take the frost to the face like a champ. But he also doesn't retaliate. One of the captives, a 5-year-old boy, says, "He's not here yet! He just looks like he is! Free us and he can't come!"

Timothius gets to work on setting the people free.

Meanwhile, back at the tiefling, when Mitts slits the tiefling's wrist, Raichel grabs her own wrist with a wince and drops her staff. On the bright side, it hurt the tiefling too. "Hahahaha! Whenever you hurt me, you hurt your sister!"

However, Raichel hadn't been healed yet. So she is now bloodied. Hello, psychocat mode! "Then I'LL hurt you and I!" Raichel growls while hopping onto the guy's back and unleashing all kinds of electricity, making both of them shriek in pain.

Back at tiki room, Tim gets nervous. "I heard them scream..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:41, Sun 18 Mar 2012.

"That... was... AWESOME!" Mittens cheers, "You make me so proud, Raichel!"

She knows Rai's tough, but it's still hard to stab the guy knowing it'll hurt her.  Ah well.  Slash where he's open.

  "Professionals in danger compared to kidnapped children, this is the Adventure at least one of your sisters should be aware of."  Terdisas is going to pick up thievery training one of these days.  For now high Dexterity will have to hopefully cut it if anything more complicated than ropes are involved.

  "Out of professional curiosity, where did you come across this knowledge?" It just might be a method something more convenient than making Arcana checks considering the shown results so far.

The child replies to Terdisas, "Because the bad man said when the demon arrived, he'd eat us. We're not eaten yet."

The moment the last captive is set free, the demon vanishes.

Meanwhile, Raichel and Mittens defeat the tiefling. Raichel is taking a deep breath before collapsing against a wall and sliding down.

Mittens does a quick first aid check on Rai to make sure she's not dieing.  "Think you can handle tie-up of badguy?" she asks hurriedly, "I'll go help Terdisas with the kids if you can."

(( OOC: From what I remember, Terdisas and the kids are in a different room.))

  "Ah, deductive reasoning.  Anyone who says children are not smart is clearly missinformed.  Timothius, if you would be so kind as to make sure no children are harmed more than they appear while I give the place the arcane onceover" Arcana checks are go.

  Superbird flies off back towards where the shifter sisters were.  No 'Visual information' sharing, but Parrots are still much better at instant information sharing than a Scout Homunculus who has to come all the way back to their owner.

OOC Style: Yeah, Ter and Tim are in diffrent room with freed kids.

Raichel doesn't even answer as she closes her eyes.

Timothius nods and agrees as he is quickly checking the health of the children.

Obviously, Superbird can see whatever happens in Mitts' post.

"TIMOTHIUS!" Mittens shouts, "Raichel unconscious!  Badguy defeated!"

She does her best to perform first aid on Raichel to make sure she doesn't die before Timothius shows up.  Just because she and Rai were sure to be non-lethal on the baddie doesn't mean the baddie's "shared pain" magic won't kill Rai.

  On the off chance Timothius doesn't notice Mittens All Caps due to medical distraction, Terdisas passes if along "They have beaten the tiefling, but Raichel is down.  I suspect she may need you more then the children at this point.  Though I shall stay with them."

Timothius rushes to Raichel to check on her, uses some of his healing powers and gets her back to a decent level of health.

Raichel blinks a few times and rubs her forehead with the side of her hand. "...thanks, Timmy." she says with a cute smile before getting up and going to tie up the badguy.

Fast-forwarding a bit, the heroes have the kids all cared for and the bad guy tied up and in the wagon.

Mittens is doing some figuring on her fingers, mostly gazing at the sky as she relaxes.

"Ya know...  if you count the number of years of life that we've salvaged from the grave between the three of us, it'd be well over four digits," Mittens concludes, "Thats over a thousand birthdays.  Then if you figure in weddings and children, the number could expand to 5 digits before we reach old age.  No idea what Terdisas' rescue count is, but I'm sure it's comparable.  Just think of all the generations of folks who'll get to see sunrises and summer flowers because we put up with a few bruises, cuts, burns and such.  Totally worth it, wouldn't ya say?"

She lets out a satisfied sigh with a big smile.

  "It does feel good to use the term 'Totally worth it' outside of a self depreciating pyrrhic victory.  Though I had not considered trying to keep a counted tally of potential lives saved."  Or even current lives saved.

OOC Style: My leading usage of Totally Worth it! in TF2.  Any time both me and the guy I'm fighting die at the same time, usually from poorly thought out use of explosives on one of our parts.

Raichel smiles at Mittens and says, "Well yes. It'd be worth it if we only saved one life, but the fact we have rescued so many makes it feel especially rewarding." After all, there are movie plots based off doing a whole quest throughout the movie just to save ONE person. Or the classic "fight a dragon to save a princess".

Timothius says, "Hey wow. Mitts looks kinda relaxed." he grins and reaches over to pet the hair out of Mitts' face.

Mits chuckles and smiles, reaching out to pet her bro back.

"Of course for me, the action is the juice.  But it never hurts to reflect on the other benefits of being a hero.  Such as bounties!  We're due some gold, aren't we?"

  "I do believe we are Mittens.  The 'Heroic' lifestyle can get rather costly despite not frequently spending on things such as fancy meals and the like."  Mmmm, RATIONS.

Timothius looks up to see Ter. "Yeah. Hopefully we can treat ourselves today."

The group makes it to town without incident. The town is, of course, very happy to have its kidnapped youth returned and reward the heroes with free room and food. Along with a monetary compensation. The sun is heading for the horizon, preparing to set.

Mits of course enjoys the hard earned free food, boisterously recalling the details of the adventure to those who happen to care to listen.

"And the rest is recent history!" she concludes.

  "I am of course, thankful that the children were able to make rescuing them easier.  So much better to have them free without dealing with a Demon than to fight one with captive nearby, after all."

Raichel leans her head on her hand in an interested manner as she listens to yet another Mittens take on the latest adventure. With the story told and the day coming to a close, Raichel says, "Thanks for that nice rendition of what we went through, Mitts. I think we should all get some rest."

Timothius is glancing at the fireplace. When he hears Raichel calling for bed time, Tim looks over at the others. "Sleep sounds good." he then looks at the people present and says, "Remember... when it seems like stopping evil will get you hurt, in trouble, or worse, it is worth it in the end. NOT stopping evil will get you and the ones you love hurt worse than if you had stopped it. So when you find yourselves scared, remember our tale and press on."

"Of course if there are professionals like ourselves handy, it wouldn't hurt to hire 'em," Mits says with a smirk, "But yeah.  As the frog strangling the stork trying to swallow him might say, 'Never give up!'"

Of course, in the Monster Bug World, struggles are often in vain.  Mittens heads off for a well deserved rest.

  "On a more cynical note, just because something is doomed if nobody helps does not mean you can force people to help.  It can end up somewhat like making the Pyromaniac watch the lamp oil supplies just because he's good with matches."

(Drawing a blank on what to run. But figured I could at LEAST have this one come to a close)