Post by Andy D on Feb 26, 2023 21:57:45 GMT
Trip Transition to Ground and Pound! Continued…
Laeruna scrambled well, and made me have to switch grips a few times. But despite her efforts, she couldn’t stop me from catching her with an inside-trip. As she hit the ground, I transitioned straight to full-mount. With my knees either side of her torso, I squeezed my legs into her side, just as my Metal-Bro instructors taught me, and from the top mount position I rained down a hurricane of a right hand into Laeruna’s nose creating a miniature blood fountain. The Elf woman was crazy. Blood spurting from her face, she seemed to be enjoying herself. She was egging me on for more. Ivan obliged her. Ivan took advantage of Laeruna’s prone state, he broughtBarbara, his greataxe, round and down on Laeruna three, very impactful times. She did good to bring her blades up in defence, but the greataxe sliced three deep wounds into her body. And yet, with blood oozing out of her wounds and her mouth, she continued to mock us…
Crimson Back Up!
“Rally to me!” Laeruna said after Varga had sent Johnny on a trip very far down, and finally they arrived.
Thugs started to enter from various sewer pipes around the chamber. Three shortbow men were quick to enter the fray, they took up positions and loosed arrows at us. Their aims were terrible and their arrow tips, when they did hit, felt dull to me at least. But, nevertheless they were dangerously distracting and prevented us from concentrating on taking out the Half-Orc Bo, and Laeruna.
The distraction was probably why Bo was able to utter the words to a spell and touch Varga - before being cut down by her. Whatever was supposed to happen, didn’t happen. Varga seemed to feel a little frozen, but she just shook her head and body and seemed fine. Bo resorted to using his battleaxe. But Varga, while reaching for a vial around her waist, stepped back to avoid the slash and used her empty hand to grip the top of the battleaxe’s shaft to reduce the potential for harm while she necked the potion.
Now that I think of it, it is curious how Ivan looked to be doing a similar thing when he was engaged with Bo, even though I couldn’t see him, since he had his back to me. This also made me think how compliant Bo must be to just let his opponents take a moment to drink a magical potion. To me, it felt that Bo was not long for this world with the way he let opponents ‘lead’. However, there was the strong possibility he would be saved by the ever increasing amount of thugs entering the chamber from the many pipes.
Potion downed, Varga blew on her battlehorn, and then let rip her berserker, zealous battlecry. It is an empowering moment when Varga does this. When she drew Undertow, her longsword magically caught fire - was this an effect of her potion?
Kelne, our thicc-boi-in-training was inspired to let rip with their own rage cry. As they made noise, they casted a spell I’d seen them do before, the one where they create a field around them where magic cannot operate. Laeruna’s swords seemed to dull a little. This was good. And then so too did Barbara, Ivan’s greataxe and Varga’s longsword, Undertow. My Stonehand Fighting tattoo’s silver gleam also changed into plain silver ink… this was a non discriminating Anti-magic Field! In the future, Kelne is to be forbidden from using this spell in proximity to their allies!
As we looked up from observing a change in our weaponry, Varga’s horn-summoned berserkers appeared and were driving the thugs back into the pipes they emerged from.
Laeruna, between my legs, wasn’t trying to buck me off, or shrimp her body out from my pinning squeeze. But, her lack of effort didn’t seem to me that she had given up. Her mouth didn’t give such an indication either, as she roared from below me, “you think that’s it?! You think that is all I’ve got?!”
Before I could open my mouth to answer, she had wedged her elbows between her torso and my knees. I got the sensation that she was about to begin shrimping out of my full mount. I was about to react and modify my position so she couldn’t escape… but she was gone!
I stood up, dumbfounded as to how she escaped my full-mount, and as I did, I think this saved me from the slashing of her blade, as she aimed where my head was when we were both prone, and slashed air instead. Before she did that though, it seemed like she had tried to strike both Kelne and Ivan. Laeruna was now moving insanely fast. In the time it takes me to land three consecutive punches on someone, Laeruna had danced around my comrades and taken potshots at them all, managing to strike Varga hard. A big wound opened on Varga’s back.
We were all stunned by Laeruna’s demonic speed. So stunned, all of us, save Kelne, became restrained in bear traps that had been hidden around the lair. In the gloomy light in the far off sconces, we hadn’t noticed the presence of traps.
Caught Between an Anti-Magic Field and a Bear Trap!
As if Laeruna, the speed demon, needed us to be slowed down by traps to gain an advantage on us. But trapped we were. Laeruna, having escaped my mount and ran circles around us, was now standing between me and Ivan. When I saw her, I pivoted my feet and delivered a left straight to her face. She moved her head to her left, and slipped out of the way of my punch. A miss. But, with her head leaning to her left, and my body now a little closer, Laeruna was lined up for my right cross, which was already in motion. Smash! My right cross hit her on her left cheek flush. Normally I would follow with a left uppercut to finish the combination. But, for some reason Kelne’s anti-magic field was restricting my movement. I noticed my Stonehand Fighting tattoos were not glowing like they usually do - it seemed connected. Also, the blasted bear trap around my leg was heavier than I thought!
After seeing Laeruna get punched in the face, Ivan managed to slash her twice with Barbara. He also managed to avoid two arrows from one of the thugs, despite being held in place by a bear trap. The other two thugs with short bows had better luck shooting me. Both landed one of two arrows each. I guess I’m just a bigger, easier target? Laeruna called for more thugs, but Varga’s berserkers were either holding them back, or killing them.
Bo tried to cast another spell on Varga, but Kelne’s anti-magic field prevented it. Bo resorted to his greataxe and managed to draw blood from Varga’s lead leg. Varga was frustrated that her longsword was now magically impreded, and was vocal about it, “Kelne, get this thing down! It’s causing more problems!” Despite the magic restrictions on her sword, Varga managed to land a near fatal slash with Undertow between the gaps in Bo’s armour. Varga then landed a very fatal blow with her flail. Bo’s armour be damned. Bo’s helm was massively dented where the flail landed, cracking his head open in a way that resembled someone cracking a hard boiled egg’s shell with a hammer. Bo fell to the ground dead. I don’t know if Varga’s bear trap was weaker than Ivan’s or mine, but she finished her attacks by just walking out of the trap. Impressive. Laeruna, however, did not share the same impression.
“No!!! Not like this!” Laeruna screamed with all the force her lungs could muster. And then something snapped inside her, as her eyes turned black.
“... well hello. Nice to join the party.” Someone said those words. Someone said those words, from Laeruna’s mouth, and it didn’t sound or even feel like it was Laeruna herself.
When Thugs Don’t Work Out - Tag in a Demon!
Kelne let their anti-magic spell fade, and casted their Spirit Guardian spell, and multiple flying, radiant cherubs began to encircle Kelne. The radiant cherubs started to whack Laeruna. But, in that moment, she seemed unfazed by their efforts. I brought my hands up as fast as I could to a defensive guard position. But, I was far too slow to stop her from slicing and stabbing me. Demon Laeruna was so fast it was as if five different people were attacking me at the same time. I would have expected to take the attack on my arms with my guard up, but she struck so fast she cut and pierced my neck, face and chest as if my arms were not in her way. I bled from all over. An army of lesser conditioned men would have fallen to these wounds. Consider also that each of her strikes were empowered with necrotic magic and/or a poisoning substance. With the combined assault of these extra elements, I can say that several of my powerful, but less thicc comrades would have fallen to this demon’s attacks. I was mesmerised by the speed, and subsequently astonished by the pain that afflicted me. But, I stood. I stood, because for me; strength and conditioning come first!
I tried to clinch Laeruna, but she danced away and tried to slash Ivan. She missed. I guessed even she could possibly move too quickly for her own good. And as fast as she was; she did not escape Kelne’s spirit guardian cherubs from attacking her with radiant force - now this is the kind of Kelne magic we love to see!
Catch as Catch Can’t? … So Punch!
I lunged toward Laeruna, again trying to grab hold of her, as the missing swing of her sword on Ivan left her unbalanced. But, she was still too fast, she swerved away from me. I tried again with my left hand. Laeruna saw it coming, and danced away from my second clinch attempt. I let my emotions get the better of me. I became frustrated. In this frustration, I reacted in anger, and switched my feet position to enable a right cross, and threw a reckless haymaker of a right cross at her face. I hit her square on the cheek! Same spot I hit her before. At the same time, I then noticed that the force of me planting my feet to better land a right cross also broke the hinge of the bear trap; freeing my restrained leg. Strength first!
As I landed a solid punch on Laeruna, Ivan took advantage of her time being occupied to free himself from his bear trap by wedging Barbara’s end into it. Freed, Ivan followed my right hand with a ferocious swing of Barbara and empowered his greataxe with focused rage given to him from his sage, great capybara friend. It was a powerful hit. The cut on Laeruna’s back went from shoulder to kidney. It was a fatal blow. But Laeruna laughed, as we saw the wound close up magically. What’s more, The sheer force with which Ivan imbues a focused rage attack, exhausted him. He needed a time-out. His exhaustion left him open for the two arrow tips that pierced his skin from one of the shortbow thugs. These arrow shots then left him open for something worse.
Demon Laeruna retaliated, and she went for Ivan first. She pierced Ivan’s shoulder with one of her swords and we watched as his veins around the spot turned a dark green. She followed with a slash to his ribs and that wound turned black with necrotic sickness.
Before I could assist my thicc-bro comrade with an attempted grapple, Laeruna had already switched her attention back to me. It was only until all of her attacks hit me, did I realise she struck me with twice as many attacks as she dealt to Ivan. Once again, my guard was too slow to impede her. My neck and face were a canvas for the violent brush strokes of her necrotic and poison enhanced blades. If not for my Iron Strong conditioning and the stone strong endurance of my Goliath body; I would not be recounting this battle.
Laeruna then finished her blistering flourish by striking Varga. Once again though, she seemed to lose control with all that demonic speed, and again failed to hit all her targets. Fortunately for us, Kelne’s cheeky, radiant cherubs could never be hit by Laeruna, and were landing more radiant hits on the demonically possessed Elf woman.
Through the blood dripping into my vision, I caught Varga unleashing a sequence of attacks, not as rapid as Laeruna’s demonic combinations, but faster than her usual attacks - the effects of the Vial of Sunset (I believe) were working once again, now that the anti-magic field was gone. Undertow was back on fire. Varga did some fine work slashing Undertow into Laeruna’s chest and bludgeoning her flail into Laeruna’s face. But, as Varga swung with haste one more time with Undertow, Laeruna cut in with, “is that the best you can do?”, and despite the manic bleeding of someone who looks like they should already be dead, she managed to avoid Varga’s last attack.
As I considered whether it was worth trying to grip my hands on Laeruna again, one of the shortbow thugs landed another arrow on me next to the one he previously landed. It was at that point I started to consider that we had all been ignoring these shortbow-wielding, free-shot-taking pricks for too long!
Kelne From Anti-Magic Terror to Massive Divine Mercy!
Ivan was beginning to look mostly green and black from the necrosis magic and poison slashes. I was a red soaked 7ft+ statue. And Varga, she was cut up badly too. Laeruna looked in bad shape as well. We had been punishing her good. But, this demon thing made it so she didn’t care. Now, Varga didn’t have any demons I knew off, but she strangely seemed chipper for someone suffering near mortal wounds. Regardless of attitudes - we all looked very terrible. Kelne must have seen enough of her thicc-boi allies getting slices cut into them and bleeding profusely. Kelne stepped forward and screamed a rageful sound. A rageful shout of powerful, mass healing!
The black and green on Ivan’s body disappeared as his wounds closed. Varga’s wounds closed, and as I wiped the crimson mask off of my face, I realised that my wounds had all closed. No new facial scars to surprise Nathalie with! Thanks Kelne! You are a top comrade. And your rage healing, though not what us thicc-bois normally associate with thiccness, is pretty damn amazing!
Laeruna screamed in frustration. It was as if we could hear her voice again, through the sound of the demon. Laeruna tried to waste no time re-doing the work she had previously done. She started with me.
One poisoned stab with her sword pierced into my chest. Laeruna danced away before I could grab her, and or Varga could opportunistically strike her. Laeruna then took advantage of Varga’s forward lunge and landed attack after attack on her. Multiple wounds opened up again on Varga. So much poison had to have entered Varga’s body with all those terrible cuts. But, the bead in the choker around Varga’s neck glowed with an autumnal warmth, and she didn’t seem to care about the poisoned cuts. Those cuts seemed, in fact, to be healing.
Both me and Ivan looked at Varga - stunned. And Ivan paid the price for the distraction, as one of the shortbow thugs took a free shot at him, piercing his shoulder with an arrow. We were all quite distracted that we stepped in some more bear traps!
Now About Those Thugs with Shortbows…
The strange thing about my bro Ivan, was that despite being fully healed, he still seemed exhausted from his focussed rage attack. It was also pissing me off that he, and I, were getting cheap-shotted by those shortbow-wielding thugs. I decided to do something about that.
“I’ll be back, comrades. Hold on,” I said to my friends, as I stamped my way out of the new bear trap, and threw myself into the air with my now freed flight legs, jumping over my bro Ivan, and landing in front of one of the shortbow thugs, wedging the man between me, and the massive hole in the ground.
Ivan was signalling to Kelne as I landed. I’m not sure what for, but this wasn’t the first time I had witnessed them communicate during battle like this…
The thug from the other side of the well loosed a couple of arrows at me, in aid of his ally in a bad situation. One arrow missed, the other one pierced my skin. I spoke to this cheeky cheapshot-er, “Oh! You want to go down the well too? Okay. Wait your turn!” The one in front of me threw some weak punches at my body. When he finished, I placed my hand on his chest, and pushed him down the well. Down he fell to say hello to Johnny-3-Caps.
Demonic Laeruna was on the move again. She was moving too fast for her own control and full effectiveness. She missed Kelne, cut Varga, missed me by the hole, but did manage to stab Ivan. Ivan, usually quick to retaliate, missed his opportunity to counterattack. Kelne’s Spirit Guardians pummelled Laeruna when she came to a stop. But, this was a temporary halt in Laeruna’s blindingly quick movement. She attacked Ivan again, drawing blood, and then dashed at lightning speed towards Varga and went ballistic. Laeruna was a tornado of blade slashes. Varga wobbled. It looked bad. But, the Orc side of her refused to go down. Varga’s eyes reddened and heat poured from her body producing a visible steam. Laeruna danced away from Varga to take another swipe at Kelne, who fortunately had a mirror image of themself take the hit. But then Laeruna sped back to Varga. With a rapidly executed lunge, Laeruna had pierced Varga’s chest with one of her blades and the wound turned black with necrotic magic. The wound was fatal. The wound was fatal, that is, if you are not strong in body, and Varga is very strong. Her reddened eyes narrowed, and the steam from her body increased as she roared a mighty cry of relentless rage! Varga, though mortally wounded, stood ready to fight.
Kelne attempted to polymorphe Laeruna, but she resisted the effects of the spell. Laeruna then went back to attacking Varga, now in disbelief that Varga was still standing. Again and again she slashed and stabbed Varga. Mortal wound after mortal wound. I watched in horror. Kelne was standing by, they could be ready to heal at a moment’s notice. But this looked very bad. And yet… Varga stood. Occasionally, with the force of each attack Varga would stumble. But, with a deadened stare, she would simply regain her stance each time she wobbled. This was beyond my mighty physical conditioning. There was something fanatical about the way Varga remained standing and, at that point, seemingly undead?
“Varga?!” I yelled from over by the big sewer hole. And the mortally wounded body of Varga held Undertow in an offensive stance, and let her flail’s head rest over her back, so she could let go of the flail's handle. With her free hand, she gave me a thumbs-up sign.
Zealot Varga Rages Beyond Death!
I did not understand how Varga managed to remain ‘alive’ at that point, if indeed she truly was. But, she managed to signal that she was doing okay. So, from where I was by the hole, I flew back toward Laeruna, who was furious, and shocked by Varga’s resistance to death. From 50ft away, I came crashing in and smashed Laeruna in the temple with a flying right cross. With my feet planted back on the ground, I followed up with a left uppercut to her jaw, which rocked her head backwards.
My Greataxe master bro saw Laeruna’s head point upwards. Her guard was down. Ivan sliced horizontally into her body, and brought his greataxe around his head for a brutally powerful downward slice across the body. Laeruna looked like chopped up meat. Was she feeling the damage and that was why she began to slow down? Or was too much of her body not functionally connected enough to move as fast as before? I wasn’t sure; but the demon had lost some speed. But still, Laeruna blinked around the battlefield again, although a little slower this time. She went for Kelne - perhaps with the objective to prevent a potential second Mass Heal. Ivan blocked the first attack with Barbara. I intercepted the next attack by pulling at her bicep. Laeruna stabbed me with the opposite arm’s sword for my interference, the necrotic energy of that blade still strong. But, Laeruna’s footwork was getting sloppy, and readable. Kelne managed to avoid the next two sword strikes themself, and then the last of their Mirrored Images received one of the remaining two strikes. The last thrust, however, pierced Kelne’s flank. In necrotic pain, our honorary thicc-boi forced a radiant Guiding Bolt into Laeruna’s face, causing radiant scorch marks to burn the demon. Laeruna wobbled. The fancy, fast footwork had gone away. Varga, posture somewhere between dead and alive, stepped towards Laeruna.
My comrades and I backed away to give Varga space. Varga brought Undertow down across Laeruna’s chest, creating a wound shaped cross along with Ivan’s previous greataxe swing. Varga drew Undertow back, and then thrusted the longsword into the spot where the greataxe’s and longsword’s wounds met. X marked the spot, and Varga drove Undertow’s point straight through Laeruna’s centre. The tip of Undertow pushed through to the other side. As the demon’s body stopped moving, it also caught fire from Undertow’s magical flame enhancement. Varga withdrew her blade, and Laeruna’s corpse fell to the ground, burning apart.
We all looked up at Varga… her eyes had regained a more healthy and alive look to them, as she even seemed to be getting a second wind and readying herself for more action. This was yet another weird spit in the face of humanoid conditioning. But good!
The remaining shortbow thugs had seen the writing on the wall. They tried to run past Varga’s berzerkers to escape. They got cut down. Some of the other thugs less engaged with the berserkers managed to escape. But, so what? The battle had ended, and we appeared to have killed a demon.
Varga’s flail seemed to be coated in ash. I wasn’t sure what had happened there.
From back where we entered the sewer, a slow clap sounded, and a red-skinned tiefling with black eyes and a black goatee revealed himself from under his hood.
The Mayor of Port Ffirst
Mace was impressed and delighted it seemed. Varga (pretty sure alive now) was pleased to see Mace. She had adventured with him before.
Both Kelne and I got another handshake and Port Ffirst Hero pin from Mace. I asked Mace if I could show Ivan (my ship) The Legacy, which Mace has as part of the Grey Zephyr Armada’s defensive fleet, since I can’t pay the berthing fee, so this is the agreement we have - he owns it, but it’s still my ship… I’m pretty sure it’s still mine…
Ivan was very surprised I hadn’t mentioned this ship before to him… me too actually. I guess we’re always too busy getting strength work done, that it surprisingly never came up before.
Himal had accompanied Mace and had pouches of 1,000gp each for us. Good stuff.
Mace agreed that we could turn the place over before his own people saw to it, so anything we found we could keep. We had a look around and found some gear. I found a Potion of Vitality.
I asked Varga about her unbelievable levels of, what I could only describe as ‘freaky conditioning’. She explained something about gods and clans. I had no idea how this led to her death-breaking rage, but I guess it just means I have some work to do on my own conditioning. My body can already absorb a huge variety of punishing blows better than her (Iron Strong conditioning, baby). But, when death came for her in battle, several times, she was like ‘whatever,’ and just walked it off…
Ivan was his usual exhausted self after combat. Such is his fighting style - he goes hard, and as such gets exhausted faster. Seems like maybe Kelne sorted him out?
Back at the Flourished Hook
Manny hadn’t fallen in battle and so didn’t turn back into a statue. Varga’s berserkers had protected him, so we had a good doggo with us as we went back to the Hook, where Himal had a bonfire going, and the outside bar was busy.
We had slain a demon. Good. I will look forward to telling Nathalie about this.
