Party Name: The Knights of the Silver Dawn.
Character Perspective: Nava (Arshea), Aasimar Bard 3 (or 4 maybe)~
My palm was sweaty against the handle of my whip, but that came as little surprise. We fought heavily through the first floor of the structure, one combat after the next, and now were feeling the strain of all our spells. I still had a trick or two up my sleeve, if you will, but I was worried by the bit of Goblin I could overhear from the room with the stairs. How they hadn’t managed to notice the clank of armor that accompanied Garek and Ahvrania I will never know.
Ahvra whispered to us that the Orc was ordering something to dance, and then we heard a Goblin die. Now seemed as good a time as any, so our leader looked back at us all and we nodded in turn. Celeste opened the door with Open/Close. It had become standard procedure by this point. Then Ahvrania moved into the room.
From my vantage point I could see a group of Goblin slaves. Six in count. Garek followed close on Ahvra’s heels, and Celeste closely behind him, leaving me to enter last.
Droplets of sweat trickled down my brow as I swallowed nervously and clenched the whip tighter. I entered the room with the dread feeling that combat would never be any less harrowing for me. Ahvra had gone along the wall between it and a table. We followed closely.
Ahvra came to a stop at the edge of the table, axe at the ready, as we came along the wall beside her. The table would provide a nice buffer between us and the orcs, so long as Celeste didn’t set it on fire somehow. Celeste readied her wand, her calculating eyes on the black-skinned Orc. Garek hefted his hammer, and I readied my whip.
It briefly crossed my mind to turn the table up so we could use it as a shield, but I was not strong enough to do that on my own, and by the time I was considering asking for help the fray had begun.
The orc guards came forward, one immediately met by Ahvrania’s axe blade. She didn’t land a blow quite hard enough to fell the creature, but she left a large gash in his flesh. The guards were wielding the curved blades we’d seen so much of now. They scored a blow on Ahvrania in turn, and I found myself thinking how lucky she was that three of us could heal.
The Goblins didn’t advance until the black-skinned orc had barked orders at them. I should have known what they were saying, but there was so much going on at once that I just didn’t have the focus to really understand the words. What I did understand was that they were abandoning their serving trays and readying weapons. My breath caught in my throat as they approached.
Blades clashed toward the back of the room as Ahvrania met the swings of her enemies, the leader who’d been on his throne seemed to have his focus on Celeste. Garek moved back, passing Celeste and myself to protect me from the Goblins, and just in time. The distance between he and them was closed as I drew forward. We made a tight little line, Ahvrania, Celeste, myself, and then Garek, keeping the table between us and our enemies.
I lashed out with my whip and managed to trip one of the Goblins. Soon after Garek brought his warhammer down on the foul creature’s skull with somewhat nauseating cracking noise. The sound of a door opening drew my eye, and there I saw a bugbear. It’s fur was black like night, white patches in it almost like stars, from it’s teeth a foul bile spilled.
“A-agh, more t-trouble!” I exclaimed.
Garek followed my gaze, “Where?”
“Y-you don’t, s-see it?” I stammered, tripping another Goblin as the creature sneered at me. My heart sank in my chest and my blood ran cold with fear. “It’s c-coming clos-er!”
Ahvrania fell one of the orc guards, but to little avail. The other moved forward and barred her path. The leader cast Scorching Ray on the Elf, and to my dismay she let out a howl of pain when it struck her.
The creature had jumped onto the far table, and as I watched the skulls piled on the table scattered and fell off of it. Just then the voice on the winds sound in my ear, the voice of Iuz, “I’ll see you soon, Nava.”
A whimper rent itself from me at the words and I cowered into the wall as the bugbear crossed the other two tables, an agent of Iuz sent to collect me. The thud of him landing on the table must have been lost in the din of combat for Garek didn’t take notice of the creature even then. Next I knew he disappeared, and then his short sword was buried in my side.
“A-agh!” I felt tears pour from my eyes as a thrill of panic started in my heart and spread through my entire being. He was going to take me back to Dorakaa, to that hell I’d known in the early years of my life. “G-garek, p-please.” I tried to trip the creature, but he was too close and my whip swept broad of him. was fortunate the swing of his sword in reaction missed my arm.
Garek blinked as he looked at me, “By all that’s Holy, there is somethin’ there! Look at the table!”
Ahvra cast a glance behind her and seemed to nod agreement as she saw the bowed in table top, but the sword of the guard soon had her attention again. The creature said nothing as he drew his sword back again, only let the sneer of his thin, black lips grow wider. ‘I’m going to die,’ I couldn’t help thinking it as he swung the blade down, my eyes widened and I cowered, but to no avail. The sword caught me in my shoulder, “N-no, pleas-se!” More tears fell from my eyes.
I felt Garek’s hand on my side and he pushed me past him, taking my place directly in front of the creature. I didn’t think it would be enough to distract the enemy, but I was by the door. I could run if I could just survive a few seconds longer.
I was moving toward it when the Goblins took their swings at me. I panicked when I felt the first blow connect and shrieked again, acting as though the wound had been far more lethal. My eyes fell closed and I let myself fall to the floor, hoping I could crawl away after the enemies repositioned.
“Nava!” Garek exclaimed in alarm. I heard Ahvrania growl and soon after the guttural howl of an orc below her axe.
“I see it!” Celeste said. I didn’t dare move. “I see it now. It’s a bugbear, Ahvrania, on the table!” Celeste’s voice was closer with the second statement than the first, but I couldn’t look to see what she was doing. Next thing I knew a wave of magic passed over me, and the goblins cried out as it contacted them. Color Spray from the sound of her incantation.
I was lucky I managed to resist the pull of its effects on my mind. Garek moved closer again, and I heard his hammer crack another goblin skull.
Celeste cried out in pain from the tabletop, but then I heard her murmur the verbal components for burning hands from the top of the room. She was just too slippery. The air around me grew warmer and the smell of burnt flesh flooded my nostrils. Finally I risked opening my eyes and saw that she’d managed to slay the remaining goblins with her spell.
I got to my feet in the chaos of the battle, stunning Garek and Celeste as I did, “Nava! Thank the gods you’re alright!” Garek said.
I offered him a meek smile as I fumbled for my wand and touched it to my side. The restorative magic flowed into me and healed some of the injuries I’d taken just in time for the creature to phase back into sight. “Oh n-no. N-not me-e.”
The bugbear moved to the corner of the table and undid all the magical healing my wand had provided with one well-placed swing. I was vaguely aware, as I focused all my attention on getting away from him, that Ahvrania had killed the last orc guard. She stepped forward to engage the caster, whose spell fizzled when Celeste pelted him with a Magic Missile from her wand. Meanwhile I ran to the far side of the chamber, praying the creature would focus on Ahvrania since she was proving a far worse threat. He did delay pursuit for a moment, and I thought perhaps I had lucked out.
The dark-skinned orc swore at Celeste and moved from the reach of Ahvrania’s axe. He threw a Ray of Frost at Celeste and our noble friend laughed in his face. “Is this what you’re reduced to? ‘Ray of Frost’?”
The orc snarled a response to Celeste about seeing how much she laughed with his dagger in her heart as the bugbear jumped to the next table, his eyes on me to my horror. ‘I shouldn’t have gotten up,’ I thought, and as I watched he closed the distance one table after the next until he was on the one right beside me. He vanished before my eyes and a squeak escaped my throat as he reappeared and brought the blade into my shoulder again. I only clung to consciousness now, fatigue from combat and terror alike taking it’s toll on my resolve (I think she was at 3 hp at this point).
My flight led me to the northeast corner of the room, where, to my horror, I realized I couldn’t run any further. The orc called out in pain from Ahvrania’s axe, his boasts toward Celeste all but silenced by it. Celeste ran toward me, but she jumped poorly on the tables and fell to the ground.
She disappeared and reappeared beside me (Pathfinder Teleportation specialist gets this wickedly useful ability called ‘Shift’ as a non-provoking swift action. Celeste is very mobile in combat as a result), eyes a bit wide. “Where is it?”
I pointed toward the creature and Celeste cast Color Spray from a scroll, but he looked unaffected to me. Ahvrania and Garek were slower with their full plate armor, and the creature vanished from sight again, “N-no-” I stammered, shrinking into the wall, but his blade connected and my world soon turned to darkness.
