Café de Nuit

"Gah!" Tomas roars, blocking one blast of hellfire with his shield only to walk right into another. Even unintentional faux passes are a great way to get bad luck all over yourself, it seems. Fighting in four dimensions, Tomas reasons, is hard work! Swiping at an after image, Tomas decides that his services are perhaps better used in the hallway.

"We'll finish this later, lamps." Tomas snarls in a tone of voice usually reserved for evil wizards and revenue agents, kicking his way out of the room and into the hall, where he sees that the lawyer is on fire. "Golly! That looks like it smarts!" Tomas reaches over, mid-epic battle with the furniture and all, and pats Agale on the back. "Don't worry, mich freuind! Arcane chemical burns, just use some lemon and soda water, they wash right out, ja?"

Absurd as he insists on being, there's something bizarrely comforting about Tomas in times like these. When a man insists on living his life like the hero in a child's play, the idea of a happy ending can sometimes become...contagious.

(Swiped at the lamp, missed. Moved to O15, thanks to Izy for the diagonal info! Used Inspiring Word on Agale, letting him spend a healing surge and gain six extra HP.)

Nerit bowed under the attack. It almost sounded like she had shrieked, but it was multiplied in the hall, and her mouth was hidden in the folds of her veil and habit.

When she recovered she straightened fully, with the reserved dignity of the proud. She nodded and flicked the dagger toward her left. What she said was lost in the moment.

A purple flash streaked toward the mage-light to Nerit's left, then forked to the opposite side to sear the other sphere. She smiled with approval and stepped down the hall, seeing the twins engaging the glasslike Cedolin.


Standard: Lightning Strike vs LowerLeft
29 att vs 18Refl.
Dmg: 9 lightning
Ricochet off to LowerRight: 6 lightning
[Hit: 1d8 + Charisma modifier (+4) lightning damage. A creature of your choice other than the target and within 10 squares of the target takes lightning damage equal to your Dexterity modifier (+3).Storm Magic: You can apply your Storm Power bonus either to the damage roll against the target or to the damage taken by the enemy within 10 squares of the target.]
Move: Shift to Z16. You can move after an attack, right? If not she'll stay put.

Kerrian winced as Cedolin's surge of unnatural power wracked his body yet again. It was the sort of thing that seemed to be becoming an unfortunate habit really, but Kerrian would have to ponder at a time when his life wasn't in jeopardy.

Which probably wouldn't be for quite some time, if his living arrangements stayed the same.

But living arrangements are for the living, so staying alive won out over pondering. There was a moment of concentration, and then the sounds of battle filled the corridor, most present feeling as if great warriors of ages past were guiding their actions and centering them to strike with sharper accuracy.

As this manifested, Kerrian ducked behind the wall, even as his spirit aide moved to support Cyrus and Darius. Which it did so by tearing into Cedolin, spiritstuff trailing from the abomination's wounds to make the brothers just slightly more real, and a realer thing can't be easily injured by something which is only real.

OOC:Minor action to use spirits of Battle on T15. Creates a Zone Burst 5 centered on T15. While within this zone, all allies gain +1 to attack rolls. This zone lasts until the end of the encounter.

Spirit companion will move to W15 while I move to Y18, giving Cyrus and Darius +1 to all non AC defenses.

Then using Defending Strike. 23 vs Cedolin's reflex. hits for 15 damage, and all allies adjacent to my spirit companion gain +1 to AC until the end of my next turn. I did not use the +2.

11 on the save vs vulnerable psychic.

Nicholas, ducks quickly to avoid the streaming blast of balefire that nearly takes his head off. Looking around he takes note of the burning bits and pieces of the other guests to this soiree, as well as taking note of his own exhaustion.

Stepping forward, he spreads his arms, and plunges into a recital. "Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray."(*)

Job done he returns his attention to Cedolin, brandishing the sword again, he draws breath preparing an inspirational speech of power and resolve, one that will bolster his allies and smite the darkness....

Unfortunatly as he draws breath a smoldering piece of Agale gets in hsi throat causing the poet to collapse in a fit of violent coughing.

(*) With apologies to Byron



Move Action: Shift to R15

Minor Action: As Im out of Majestic Word here's an Inspire Competance (burst 5), Nicholas , Agale, Celeste, Darius, Lia, Richard and Cerise all gain +2 on heal checks which might help towards the triggering others second wind, stabilising dying people and granting saving throws if we need them.

Standard Action: Stirring Shout at Cedolin.............and I bloody miss by 1 again with a 16, thats it Im going home.

*edit - even on a miss any ally who hits Cedolin for the rest of the encounter regains 4 hp - have fun kids..*

Cyrus raised his sword. It gleamed with a steely aura as he swung it around in both hands. The mage light pounded him but guided by the Lawgiver, the dommer caught the blast on his blade and shunted some of the burst into lost gendarme captain.

Perhaps it was the dark glasses he wore, or the strength of conviction Cyrus had in the Lawgiver, but Cedolin's glaring glow washed over the elder twin. "My faith is my shield," he intoned as he raised his blade for the counterattack, "My god is my guide. My blade is His blade. You will fall in His name."

The greatsword came down and clobbered the former gendarme. "Broder! Strejke!" he shouted as he created an opening for Darius to attack.

Leading Strike on Cedolin for 31 vs. AC on the attack roll.

Damage is 3 (dice) + 4 (Wisdom) + 1 (weapon) + 1 (Censure of Unity) + 5 (vulnerability) = 14 total.
I'm not sure if the companion spirit counts as an ally, but if it does, please add +1 damage.

Also, Darius gains +2 damage on his next damage roll.

Also also, I don't know Danish so it's all based on what Google Translate tells me

The Archeron, Parnault Bay, Port-a-Lucine; Night of March 24th, 770
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Player Actions
Tomas: Misses the Lower Akiri turret, but moves and heals Agale
Nicolas: Stirring Shout's Cedolin, anyone who hits him regains 4 HP. Also uses Inspire Competence on a bunch of PCs and NPCs
Mr. Agale: Blasts both upper turrets for some hefty damage.
Celeste: Has nothing to do whatsoever with the Yellow Chromatic Orb that hurts Cedolin for 17 damage and dazes him.
Kerrian: Makes a large, +1 attack zone. Hits Cedolin for 15 damage.
Nerit: Ricochets some lightning around, hitting both lower turrets, killing both.
Darius: Uses a Frost Backlash followed by a Frigid Blade, dealing 25+14=39 damage to Cedolin
Cyrus: Hits Cedolin for 14 damage with a Leading Strike.
Lia: Casts Force Orb on Cedolin, deals 8 damage.


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The sound of ladies' boots on the wooden floor, and the smell and sound of gunfire, spelled the end of the last turrets in the hall. Captain Cedolin remained. His form was broken in both body and spirit, if the thing that stood before you could have been truly said to have either. Fragmented images of him tore across your vision, assaulting your eyes whenver you tried to look at him. The captain simply stood still, staring out with his glowing yellows eyes. If he had done anything, if anything had changed, it was lost in the whirling fog from the mirrors and the bending of light around his form.

NPCS move to finish off the remaining hall turrets.

Captain Cedolin does not do anything that you can determine. He makes most of his saves, however.



Terrain: Any creature within the blue/purple squares on the map can target any other creature standing within that terrain as if they were adjacent to that creature. Any attack targeted in this manner takes a -2 to hit from concealment. (More detailed description can be found in the OOC).

Kerrian's Spirit of Hawk's Wind: Within this zone, allies may shift 4 squares as a move action, ignoring difficult terrain during the shift. Kerrian may also move this zone 5 squares as a move action. Kerrian does not have to take an action to sustain the zone.

Zone (Blue): +1 to attack rolls


PCs & NPCs:
Cyrus Isfahani (C): 36/58, Spirit Defense (+1 NAD)
AC 18, F 18, R 17, W 19
Darius Isfahani (D): 18/60, Bloodied, Resist All/3, Spirit Defense (+1 NAD), Vulnerability 5 Psychic (Save ends)
AC 23, F 17, R 19, W 19
Sister Nerit Doherty (N): 26/47
AC 18, F 14, R 17, W 21
Mr. Agale (A): 43/44, Inspire Competence
AC 18, F 16, R 19, W 21
Nicolas Etienne de Castaigne (Nc): 50/56, , Inspire Competence
AC 21, F 18, R 20, W 21
Tomas Eisenwald (T): 44/59, Resist All/1,
AC 24, F 18, R 18, W 20
Prof. Lia Mournswaithe (L): 32/50, Inspire Competence
AC 20, F 16, R 18, W 17
Kerrian Mauganson (K): 5/53, Bloodied,
AC 17, F 19, R 16, W 20
Celeste Viardot (Cv): 40+3/50, Inspire Competence
AC 16, F 17, R 18, W 20

Richard Blackwood (Green R): -17 HP, Inspire Competence
Cerise Rondelet (Green C): -8 HP, Inspire Competence


Enemies:
Captain Cedolin: -333 HP, Marked (Darius), Dimensional Bond (Darius), Bound by Fate (Cyrus), Vulnerability 5/All, -2 movement, Stirring Shout (anyone who attacks Cedolin gains 4 HP per hit), Bloodied
AC: 22 Fortitude: 20 Reflex: 20 Will: 21

Mage-Light Turret(Akiri, Upper): -58 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Akiri, Lower): -52 HP, Bloodied, (Burst Expended), Ongoing 5 Psychic (Save Ends)
Mage-Light Turret (Darkonian, Upper): (Burst Expended)
Mage-Light Turret (Darkonian, Lower): -58 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Dementlieuse, Upper): -14 HP (Burst Expended), Vulnerability 5 All, Divine Sanction
Mage-Light Turret (Dementlieuse, Lower): -14 HP (Burst Expended)
Mage-Light Turret (Kartakan, Upper):
Mage-Light Turret (Kartakan, Lower): -56 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Corridor, Upper Left): -59 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Corridor, Upper Right): -56 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Corridor, Center Left): -60 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Corridor, Center Right): -60 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Corridor, Lower Left): -63 HP, DEAD
Mage-Light Turret (Corridor, Lower Right): -60 HP, DEAD
AC 18; Fortitude 17, Reflex 18, Will 19

Tomas locks eyes with the Captain, taking a shallow breath and wincing at the feel of the strip of muscle exposed to the air. No time to hurt. No time to sleep. This familiar litany allows Tomas to force his body forward, slowing building up power like he were a human train engine.

"Excuse me." Tomas murmurs, moving around Nick with a quicksilver turn of his body, Ivorsen seeming to almost drink up the energies being spilled so liberally around the ship; the sword crackles with purples and amber and even a little misty gray alongside its usual lightning-white glow. Tomas is out and out running now, closer and closer to the wounded, dieing captain; he, in the strange forever between seconds, wonders on what Charles said to him earlier, about mercy towards monsters being cruel, because it just puts off when you'll have to kill them, and burdens them with the knowledge of their loss of control in the bargain. That it is ultimately kinder to just snuff out those scarred, caressed, and otherwise victimized by the filth hidden in the heart of their world.

Tomas leaps into the air, spinning his whole body around a full three hundred and sixty degrees; he moves too quickly for the naked eye, though an experienced warrior like Darius might be able to see the details. The light of Ivorsen crackles around Eisenwald and Celodin as a connection is made...

...Tomas smashes the side of the captain's head with the blunt side of his sword...

...and Eisenwald lands, the light fading as his magic sword clicks back into its sheathe, his shoulders low from the exertion.

Move: U15
Minor: Divine Strength. (+2 extra damage.)
Standard: Charge, with my valiant strike as my basic attack. Nonlethal. I hit with a 27(Rolled a 16, Kerrian's boost and the charge bonus balance out the -2 for nonlethal, 16+11=27.), and I do 17 points of damage(Rolled a 5+5+5+2.)

'I am running out of useful spells, here,' Lia thinks with a stab of irritation. Out loud, she declaims: "Sagitta magica, omne errore vacua, vole!" A dart of bluish light speeds away from her hand to impact with Captain Cedolin - or at least, the thing that looks like him.

(OOC: Casting Magic Missile. Attack roll: 25. Damage roll: 6 force damage + whatever bonuses still apply due to vulnerability and whatnot. ^^; I lose track.)

From where he was, Kerrian let out a low growl. He had been fighting it off since the first barrage of energy hit, and couldn't fight it off any longer. Fingernails that were trimmed now turned into claws that were any manicurist's nightmare, and his eyes went wide, a fury present in them usually most out of place on Kerrian's face.

Most interestingly, some of his injuries began to ever so slowly vanish.

It was through some small miracle that Kerrian managed to stay his hand from attacking Cedolin as he slipped into what passed for unconsciousness for whatever he was now.

Instead, a question. Namely "What do we do with him now?" said in a voice with far more growl than usual.

OOC:Activating Longtooth shifting as a minor action, gaining +2 to damage for the rest of the encounter, and Regeneration 2 as long as I am bloodied. Didn't see Isy's post about him being down before I rolled, so holding off on attack.

"For starters, I would recommend binding and gagging him," Lia replies, her voice cold and harsh. For a moment, the Mage seems to be surrounded by an aura, or perhaps a brief surge of fog, but it is there and gone too soon to be certain. "And possibly putting a blindfold over his eyes, and more cloth over his ears. After that ... Can anyone tell me just what he has become? I could possibly perform a ritual to constrain his movements ... if we know a good place to put him, that is."

(OOC: Using one healing surge.)

The Archeron, Parnault Bay, Port-a-Lucine; Night of March 24th, 770
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Cedolin lay still, the glowing eyes finally quelled and shut. Even when he wasn't moving, the light seemed to bend around him in strange ways, creating an aura of unreality around his prone form. He didn't appear to be breathing, but somehow you could tell that something remained within that earthly shell, slumbering, waiting. A few moments after he had fallen, the lamps in the hallway flickered and returned to normal. The fractal fog that had been pouring forth swirled and dissipated, leaving the mirrors cold and dark.

Richard, having spent a few moments to return his armaments to their various places, strode down the hall to the captain's stricken form. He leaned down to where the shattered notebook had fallen, gently picking it up with his long fingers. The glassy sheen that had covered it was melting away like ice, leaving the pages paper once more. The fissures running through them remained, and the notebook cracked and crumbled at the touch. Richard wordlessly presented it to you.

Lia wrote:"For starters, I would recommend binding and gagging him," Lia replies, her voice cold and harsh. For a moment, the Mage seems to be surrounded by an aura, or perhaps a brief surge of fog, but it is there and gone too soon to be certain. "And possibly putting a blindfold over his eyes, and more cloth over his ears.

"Umm... I don't really think the gag would do anything, he seems pretty quiet," Cerise said, shifting her weight from one foot to another in an antsy fashion. "I don't think we should let him near anything reflective, even with the blindfold. Maybe we could pack him up into a shipping crate? Only, um, whatever you guys want to do, I think maybe we should do it soon."

There was a sudden, ominous cracking noise from the Levi Mirror.

"Like, now," Cerise said, with a nervous grin.

Mr. Agale gazed hard at the abomination that was Captain Cedolin trying to fathom what could spawn such a creature. "Indeed Miss Rondelet," he said, "bind his hands and cover his head with a sack. We do not want to fill passers by or our boat driver with more suspicions than is necessary. If I might Mr. Blackwood?" Agale perused the notebook, then flipped the page to the back and held it up to one of the now benign lights. "Intriguing, at least the captain's current state was not entirely in vain. Once we have returned to terra firma and placed this creature in gendarme custody, we should inquire after this Anna-Marie. We should also recover-"

The cracking snaps the Borcan out of his pedantry. "Drat. Quickly now, recover whatever you can from the holds, the stone and metal work may be able to survive a time at the bottom of the bay, but the more perishable artifacts will not." With that, he jogs purposefully into the Darkonian room and returns with his arms full of books.

Darius grunts and pulls Cedolin's jacket up over his head, covering his face; taking off Cedolin's belt, he pulls Cedolin's hands behind him and secures them by wrapping the belt around them several times. Nodding at his brother, the two thrust their arms (left for Darius, right for Cyrus) under Cedolin's and frog-march him down the corridor toward the waiting boat.

"Indeed I think once more our welcome has been overstayed, getting to be rather a habit" Nicholas adds flippantly, snapping his cane back together and wiping the hair out fo his eyes. Then rather than just staanding around quipping nonsensically he helps Agale loot the Darkonian room for whatever was worth saving, in particular the contents of those workbenches.

Stuffing the pages into his battered satchel he heads after the others, "Ladies, gentleman let us depart before we are offered an impromtue course of hydrotherapy, of course assuming our dear boatman hasn't left us to Pernault Bay's tender mercies."

Tomas blinks at the backwards writing...there was, at least at some point, something left to save. And frankly he's a bit surprised at no one calling for the man's death. The Twins's silent assist is another unexpected bonus...

crraaaaccckk.

Ivorsen's back out, Tomas turning towards the mirror as if the fury in his gaze could somehow fight back against the things on the other side. "We'll put him in the basement, see if we can't coax whatever's in there out of him." Tomas looks towards Lia, "If we can, chances are we can trace it and find whatever did this to the Captain." Being an old friend, Lia may pick up on the understated 'and then I will set it on fire and stomp what's left into a fine paste.'; long experience is all that's keeping Tomas from ripping through the boat itself, angry crew or no, in search of answers.

Tomas stands by the door, motioning that he'll be the last out, keeping his gaze at the mirror and his shield on his forearm. "Remember to use the Buddy System!"