Satisfied that the goblin would not follow them, Scalesa cut its bonds and followed her companions across the span, cross bow at the ready.

"Monster?" Karga says with a hint of interest, "What....monster?"

 When the monster appeared and seemed to charge, Desra crouched slightly and swiftly brought her shield up. She was ready to receive it. Which was probably utterly naive as the devilish creature could have bitten her head off without a second thought...

 As it stopped, she unclenched her jaw and loosened her grip on the shield.
  "It... It's stuck ?" she half commented half asked.

She slowly took a careful step forward and tried to get a better look at the pattern on the tiled floor.
"What's that ? It looks like the monster can't walk outside these lines..."

Bow and arrow in one hand, Haaj moves over to Desra and Guelph

"There is a spiked monster here, but it does not attack," Guelph says to Karga, keeping one eye on the creature in case it decides to attack after all.

 If the monster does not come closer, Desra will slowly pace her way to the corner of the ledge.

OOC:  Sorry for the delay, was thinking about how exactly I wanted to run this next section.  Everyone is in tactical movement now.

Desra takes a few steps forward and the creature howls again, reaching out but not able to reach the cleric.  The others begin to move into position, and Scalesa's movement stops her on the ladder.



Initiative
Scalesa
Haajrayn
Guelph
Monster
Mina
Desra

Karga takes a moment to ponder.  "Spiked monster..." he says softly.

In reply to Karga (msg # 259):

Mina will look closely at the spiked monster from a distance, and see if it is a being she recognizes from her studies..

Guelph inspects the markings on the floor, trying to work out if they share any relationship with the sigils in the previous room.

  "Maybe we should have moved the ladder before climbing up here... I'd rather be over there..." Desra candidly said, pointing at the ledge just above Karga.

 Her eyes were still set on the demonic hound. She hoped these spikes could not detach...

In reply to Desra Jalarond (msg # 262):

"Take caution all of you! That thing is called a howler, it is of chaos and evil! Mina yelled from her position in the back. "Those quills can break off inside of you and cause serious damage!"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:47, Tue 11 Mar 2014.

"Lovely... " Scalesa made a face.  Had she heard of howlers, or was she mixing them up with something else...

19:01, Fri 14 Mar 2014: Scalesa rolled 22 using 1d20+5 ((17)).

Knowledge (Arcana) check for the howler.

Knowledge (The Planes) is more for Demons and the like, but if there's a chance she might be able to find something out about the reason this creature isn't making its way to the party, then so much the better!

Haaj keeps calm as Mina talks about the creature.
Never having meet one of them, he didn't say 'no' to a little information.

The group largely remains stationary, leery of the strange looking howler.  However, at the mention of the beast's name, Karga flies into action.  Moving with surprisingly agility, he scales the rough walls of the pit.  "Demon!" he roars, "Prepare to meet your end!"

The monster, howling away, charges towards Karga.  Anticipating the action, Karga lands a heavy strike with his two-bladed sword before the howler lands a vicious bite of its own.



Initiative
Mina
Desra
Scalesa
Karga
Haajrayn
Guelph
Howler (AC:15/T:10/FF:14)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:47, Sun 16 Mar 2014.

Scalesa leaves the howler knowledge to Mina, and just watches it cautiously.  Then, ye gods, the construct of Acheron scales the wall in a blink and a half, and begins attacking it!  She makes a very impressed noise, albeit sheepishly, owing to the fact that they were not fighting for her amusement, but to settle an insignificant part of some cosmic battle that she knew next to nothing about.

Looking at the two extraplanar beings standing together, the half-elf felt that her issue with "bad" goblinoids was similar, albeit far less significant, and that she and the goblin were like grains of powdered sugar.

 Desra had spent a long moment just staring at the creature, trying to assess how best to go past it without risking a bloody fate. She was just questioning whether she would be able to make a suitable shelter of her shield whilst crawling back to the wall and towards the stairs at the end of the maze...
...but then everything accelerated. The construct guardian was up and ready to attack the demonic spiked hound. It charged and landed a severe blow, and the young priestess decided that she could not let the centennial creature fight this battle alone. While her weaponry might prove ineffective against such monster, her fighting skill might at least give Karga a tactical advantage.

 She took a step sideways and launched herself blade first against the hind legs of the "howler". The sword found its way to the fleshy part above the knee, and while it did not sever an artery, she hoped it would at least cause the monster pain and distraction.

  move bottom-right then bottom-left and attack :
 hit AC22 for 7 damage (critical hit not confirmed)
 flanking bonus or other circumstantial bonus not included

Scalesa is spurred on by the faithful one's heroics, and fires a bolt at the Howler.  With the flicking of a firing mechanism, the half-elf, a speck of powdered sugar to this half-grain of salt, made her action.

01:05, Tue 18 Mar 2014: Scalesa rolled 19,1 using 1d20+2,1d8 ((17,1)).

Light Cross Bow attack against the Howler.

With a look of determination (which was pretty much always his look) and appreciation, Karga took two quick swipes at the howler before him.  Unfortunately, years of non-use had made him a little rusty with his two-bladed sword and both swings fly wide.

Guelph sizes up the thorny creature and casts another spell on his trusty oaken cudgel.

Standard: casting Shillalegh on club

Haaj shoots at the Demon, but the arrow goes wide.

---

Standard:
 -Attack hit AC 13 using 1d20+6 ((7)) Miss

Woooow. i'll never hit anything

The adventurers move to assist Karga in the fight against the howler.  Desra bravely moves up the the large beast and lands a very skillful strikfull strike as it's distracted.  Scalesca's arrow also finds a home in the howler's flesh.  Guelph's says a few silent words and his club takes on a much more menacing look!

The howler glances back and gives a menacing growl towards Desra.  It turns towards her for a moment, but then redirects his attention at Karga.  It lunges, mouth open, at Karga but misses.  The quills on the howler glance off Karga's thick skin with hollow thuds.



Initiative
Mina
Desra
Scalesa
Karga
Haajrayn
Guelph
Howler (AC:15/T:10/FF:14)

Karga begins to look a bit more comfortable with his weapon.  He swings with one end of the blade, barely missing the howler.  The howler looks poised to attack the opening left in Karga's defenses before he suddenly rips his sword in the opposite direction, slicing the howler deep across the throat.  The howler makes a gasping, bubbling attempt at a howl before falling still.  A large pool of blood quickly forms on the floor.  It reaches the edge of the pit and creates a small, morbid waterfall down the ledge.

Karga exhales deeply with a look of satisfaction.

With noise of the howler now gone, Guelph strains to listen into the distance. He soon points a finger over at the eastern area of the room. "I hear voices, and armour," he says, preparing to head over.

"Yes, some things are coming!" Haaj draws another arrow and moves towards the Howler's corpse to stand between Desra and the ledge