World of Warcraft - Interbellum (IC Thread)

[MrAbdiel]

Spoiler: {Fluff}Jakk'ari Listens...

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You are equipped with senses beyond those classically recognized by the people of Azeroth; a kind of hearing that extends into the spirit realm where the nascent and sometimes developed intelligences of elementals glide manifested in the spiritual echoes of the world. Shaman through the various troll tribes come to hear the elemental voices differently: a child of the burning sands, wind and fire were the first to speak to you, with earth not slow to join the chorus, and the voice of water years later, marking your transition from student to journeyman shaman with a pilgrimage to the ocean and a three day and night fast. A darkspear shaman would typically hear water and wind first, with earth and fire proving elusive; but all strive to hear the voices of the four elements to understand the wisdom of their full concert. You can even now smell the salt of the sea wind from that day - so unlikely the freshwater of the oases and secret springs of your desert home, so alien and confronting - and the saline burn in your nostrils comes back to you from time to time when the voices of the elements, particularly water, catches you off guard in some way.

Usually, these voices come from individual spirits that correspond to the presense of elements in the real world, as much causing them as caused by them. The voice of spark and pebble might come to you eagerly when you gaze into a campfire on a dry night; but more exotic voices come sometimes, too. Voices like Slag and Flow speak for amalgams of fire and earth you once found haunting the cooling remnants of a volcanic eruption, for example; and another time, you spoke with a kind of elemental noble of the air called Ertan; who communicated with you in words and concepts as clear and complex as any you have heard from mortal lips. Sometimes, your mentor once told you, the elemental spirits speak in woven voices; one might become chosen to hear the voice of Water in some grander sense, perhaps of all the water spirits in a particular region, or further still.

But whereas the ability to hear all four core elements instead of a selection therefrom is the difference between a student and a journeyman, it is the ability to hear at least in some small way from the fifth element, the element of Spirit, that separates the journeyman from the master.
Spirit does almost never presents in elemental spirits like the cardinal elements do - it is clearer to say it is present in all of them, in some way; offering the very principle of life and awareness that differentiates an earth elemental from a lump of stones. Spirit is born from the realm of Life, and the weaving of that Life with the elemental spirits of the cardinal elements creates a world of thriving forces and teeming, largely harmonious creatures. That, atleast, is the theory; in practice Spirit as a fifth element is so elusive and so weak that its existence within the pantheon of elements is sometimes doubted completely. Its stewardship is largely left to different magical specialists - Druids, who approach the question of life from a study of the physical, extrapolating from animal and plant life as it manifests in the world into principles of spiritual reality beyond it.

Spirit, as an element, is something a shaman might hope to hear from a few times in their life. This is one such time. You do not know what this creature is saying, in as much as it is saying anything; but your heart strains in your chest with desperation to know and understand, if at all you can; and your allies, awestruck or at least hesitating, do not foul your effort. You hear Spirit move, like an ethereal wind through the hollows of the looming ligneous beast's body; and the wordless touch of Spirit is like a breif, momentary flash of total understanding, bridging the gap between you, and the alien force hunching before your eyes here in the guts of the earth, in this impossible glade.

This creature is Verdan. It is an elemental of Life; a kind of guardian spirit who has been devoted to protecting these caverns for... a unit of time you don't entirely understand, but must equate to hundreds of years at least; perhaps thousands. These are sacred caverns, as the druids certainly knew; the nearness of the Emerald Dream, the loom through which the mystical raw stuff of life passes to grade into living things in Azeroth, being so rare and special in the world; and certainly the source of the oasis' normal thriving state. Unscrupulous mystics of various kinds have sought to use the caverns for their purposes over time; local potentates sometimes attempting to seize and directly colonize the oasis and not share its bounty with all the dwellers of the barrens beyond. Verdan, once every few generations, has had to muster force to despatch or drive off such parasites. Life is not the property of any selection of beings. Life belongs to life.

But something has happened. The nearness of another realm - of the strobing, burning, pure possibility of the arcane - is not meant to bleed into the material world like elemental forces are. Its ideal state is confined, and ordered, and drawn carefully into reality by judicious users. Here, it is haemorrhaging in from some kind of breach in the cavern beyond this one, and the effect of the mana spilling through is toxic to elemental spirits and mutative to living creatures. Verdan, connected to all the life in these caverns, has chosen to soak as much of this magical radiation as it can stand, rather than to permit the creatures and plants and fungi within to become truly deviate; but it has reached its capacity. The mana has poisoned its body; sapped its soul; and with an impaired awareness, it is at least aware that it is losing its mind.

It knows it needs to die, to rejoin Spirit before its essence is completely subsumed and it becomes something else entirely. But it is also in pain; and the flow of so much raw mana is causing defects in its senses so that it does not know what is illusion or not. It suspects it has been betrayed, but knows it cannot trust its suspicions, and is near to maddened with this paradox. The question it seemed to be asking, if it could be hammered into the shape of an intelligible sentence, would have to be something like a sullen, bitter: 'Are you real?' But it cannot trust any answer given it; so it it delays its only other instinct - the instinct to attack, as protector of the caverns - not because it can receive a sufficient answer, but because it hates the inevitability of what must follow.

Verdan, you understand immediately, is extremely sick, though not quite dying. He is a Life Elemental who is now so shot through with the cancerous, transmutative energies of raw arcane that he is almost what some might call an Arcane Elemental, and the transmogrification has been extremely punishing.

He cannot be healed of this condition. He can only be set free.

[Plaids]

Isaera's voice draws Jakk'ari out of a sublime trance. This creature Verduran is a marvel a champion of unimpeded growth within nature and a unifying constant amongst all elements. But it is not well teetering on the edge of insanity, something the elements provided refuge by teaching acceptance of the natural world.

Jakk'ari makes eyes contact with and responds to Isaera. The first few words uttered as only hushed croaks attempting to mask his sadness.
That is Verduran. The custodial guardian of this place and elemental of spirit.
It is sickened and doesn't even if we are real. Something here has poisoned it and it could assail us at any moment.

Jakk'ari breaks eye contact to admire Verduran hoping his reverence will delay the inevitable.
But the mission superseded enlightenment.

[BananaPhone]

Marion Mordis

On the outside, Marion was coping relatively well. As well as one would expect of some book-worm aristocrat of her character. She carried herself with poise, maintaining a nice coif of hair, her clothes intact and bearing only the minimal marks of one sifting through the grime and dangers of an underground cave system. But on the inside, Marion had decided something: stuff caves.

She remembered being the only one who dissented against venturing into this humid, claustrophobic death-trap, and she would continue to remember it until their little troupe broke apart. The rest of her friends, though she valued their companionship dearly, could, in her secret estimation, go and suck and egg for willingly drawing them all down into this fetid, sweaty hell.

"It's touched by the Void," Marion's voice spoke up from the back, matter-of-factly.

"The madness within this place stems from the Void."

[Plaids]

The fell? No, it was its damnable sibling.
Arcane magic, the force that precipitated the decline of the ancient troll empires and unscrupulous sorcerers opened perilous portals summoning fiends to this day.

The magic sought to control the natural world and never accepted anything not under its own terms.

Jakk'ari croaks a raspy response.
No, Marion. It's Arcane Magic and it has poisoned this place. The Fell is likely not far behind.

Jakk'ari's voice begin to bristle with rage.
Someone has changed this place and Verduran is has taken the abuse. Jakk'ari points to giant sewn together by vines and roots.

[BananaPhone]

Marion Mordis


Marion pursed her lips and blanched.

Inhaling through her nostrils, holding, then exhaling, the Warlock nodded in acquiesces.

"Alright. What do I know? I'm only a warlock."

[WindStruck]

The pure arcane energy permeating the area was intense. It was more than being at the Sunwell now. Though Isaera's people had adapted more to being showered with mana and arcane energy, even this seemed to be far too much for her.

Even one with an incredibly high tolerance for liquor could still succumb to alcohol poisoning.

"Arcane magic is known for twisting and mutating living creatures. Too much of a good thing is.. a bad thing," she mumbles, beginning to feel herself become more incoherent.

Isaera shakes her head and tries to focus. "We need to find the source and stop it somehow. If that's even possible? Or..."

Or perhaps it would be best to just let it overwhelm this place. Maybe Isaera could lead her people and her family to a lush oasis, filled with ever-changing life and mana, a beacon which overshadowed the Sunwell. She could be heralded as a hero, a philanthropist, delivering her people to a source of mana that wasn't tainted by the fel.

But on the other hand.. Marion felt a demonic presence here? What? Was this phenomenon here caused by the void somehow? Isaera was confused and distant as she daydreamed.

[Feathersnow]

Lag pipes up "Yes, this isn't right. It is for a different time"

Mor looks perplexed. Lag had been acting funny lately.

[Plaids]

Yes Lag we need to stop the infection then rip and tear apart those responsible! Our work has just begun.
Jakk'ari's left begins to swivel about looking for incriminating evidence. Perhaps a loose mana crystal or a goblin rocket, something to nail the arsonists responsible.

Jakk'ari then speaks in a hushed voice vainly attempting to console and comfort Verduran.
Don't worry Verdy Jakk'ari will banish the arcane leak, and everything will be back to what it once was.

[MrAbdiel]

Verdan seems to be responding to Jakk'ari's paternal tones and efforts to sooth; stooping down to lower itself to eye level with the troll. The gleaming blue points of light within the ligneous cavities of its head seem imploring, and wistful...

...And then the mossy ridge serving as a facial brow hardens with resolve; and any trace of warmth and speculative restraint vanishes from its posture. With a wheezing, inhuman battlecry, it lashes out with limbs of tangled vines to snatch the troll up and hoist him into the air!

Spoiler: Combat!

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Roll initiative!

Verdan: Initiative - (1d20+1)[9]

Verdan's surprise action was attacking Jakk'ari (a 14, I think, will just barely hit Jakk'ari's Parry defense; in my Roll Thread for posterity) for a Damage 5 hit; so Jakk'ari, you can make me a toughness roll against DC 20. In addition, Verdan has some grab related talents, which are going to be relevent throughout this fight.

With Fast Grab, any time he hits with an unarmed attack, he does his normal damage and may also attempt a grab. The attack roll (14 in this case) does double duty as the Grab test, which you may oppose with Dodge or Strength, your choice.
With Improved Hold, if he successfully grabs you, later efforts to escape the hold take a -5 Circumstance Penalty.
With Chokehold, if he successfully grabs you, you also begin to suffocate.

Now, Suffocation is a doozy. The rules aren't very good with it. They give you the rules for holding your breath (1 minute plus 2*Stamina rounds; way longer than most fights take, making choking useless as an attack). At the end of that time you begin to suffocate, which puts you just a few rolls away from blacking out and dying; way too harsh as an attack in combat. So here's my plan, in the spirit of experimentation: When you are grabbed into a chokehold in combat, you don't get to draw a lungful of breath unless you were specifically preparing an action to do so. Instead, you get 1d6+(2*Stamina, minimum 1) rounds of breath. That means a waif with negative stamina will have between 2 and 7 rounds of dangling before blackout rolls come into play; and against big chonkers with +4 Stamina, looking at 9-15 rounds, the tactic is unlikely to be very effective at all.

Jakk'ari, make me that toughness roll against DC 20; and also a Strength or Dodge roll at DC 14, your choice. Failing the first is damage as normal; failing the second means you are grabbed, and Verdan is beginning to choke you to death. And that's how combat begins!

[MrAbdiel]

Verdan's massive hands made of matted masses of roots and vines lash out at Jakk'ari. The troll twists instinctively out of the gripping clench, but the sheer momentum of the blunted attack striking his chest knocks the wind from him and sends him staggering back a couple of steps.

Emilia has been quiet for the encounter - what she sees in the inscribed green lens, in this room of conflicting magics, must be difficult to describe. But as soon as violence erupts, her focus narrows to a razor edge - not unlike that of the longsword that rings from its sheath. But the blow cuts through a few vines and thunks into a core of wood within the bulky arm, to her dismay; it will require some effort to get a gage of where this creature's weaknesses lay... if it has any.

Spoiler: OOC!

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Emilia misses! Marion and Vargheist are up!

[BananaPhone]

Marion Mordis


Marion watched as the troll plied his spiritual magics in an attempt to 'speak' to the plants and compel it to reconsider its path in life. But alas, such efforts were futile. The Void let few things go so easily, the warlock thought to herself.

The hideous plant-thing lurched forward, its thorn-woven hands smashing at Jakk'ari's body as vines within its image attempted to spiral out from their hiding sheaths and entangle the troll in some ghastly death-grip. Thankfully, the shaman managed to wriggle his way out of it!

Taking a step back, her heart starting to beat within her chest, Marion drew her hands up and sent her mind upon the dimensions of the walking foliage her grasp of the Fel.

By her side, Vargheists sizeable form propelled forward, his large, clawed hands moving in to strike.


ooc:
___________________
Marion is moving back well out of reach.

She's using Move-by Action to cast Corruption on the plant. It's Perception so auto-hits, with a DC 19 toughness check. It has Secondary Effect so it has to take another Toughness check next round.

Vargheist will move up and attack: (1D20+4)[9] DC 15 if he hits.

[MrAbdiel]

Jakk'ari staggers back as Emilia and Vargheist press in; neither divine-sponsored nor void-expelled assailant finding purchase with their attacks. A patch of the vines and roots on the central trunk of plant matter begins to blacken and spread, however; dead plant-flesh corroding in an intricate manner that maps to the movements of Marion's fel digits. Maddened with magical sickness and delusion, Verdan snatches out with one grasping hand towards Jakk'ari, and one towards Vargheist...

Spoiler: OOC: Damage Report!

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No hit from Vargheist, but Marion's Corruption does more than just chip the paint - rolling a 1 on his toughness, Verdan's Core takes a 3 degree damage effect - staggered, -1 to Toughness checks, and a further 3 degree hit upgrades to a 4!

Verdan's response is to clobber Jakk'ari and Vargheist. He hits both handilly, so I'll need another set of rolls: toughness roll against DC 20; and also a Strength or Dodge roll at DC 14. Vargheist will need to provide the same!

[MrAbdiel]

Vargheist is struck, but the blow thunks into the dark violet pseudo-flesh of the voidwalker and the pinprick-glow eyes barely seem to register the contact at all. The voidwalker jukes back as the tendrils try to grip it, then back in to close the gap again. Jakk'ari is not so fortunate; Verdan reaches upward with one hand, splays its 'fingers' out into broad, thorny spatula that slams down and brackets the Farraki against the mossy earth. It then hoists him into the air, well above where the lanky troll's legs can find traction, and in a great convulsion of its viney composition, begins to constrict, crush, and choke the captive shaman.

Spoiler: OOC Attack Resolutions:

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Just resolving the damage and effects of Verdan's attacks. To round up:

Verdan's RIGHT ARM is choking Jakk'ari, and has no damage.
Verdan's CORE is Staggered and has a -1 accumulated damage modifier.
Verdan's LEFT ARM is free, and has no damage.

Jakk'ari, having posted his roll in the OOC, misses with his melee attack, and is no longer staggered; but he is at a -2 damage modifier from being clobbered twice.

Mor'Lag, Marion, Isaera and Emilia may act! I'll do Emilia last and roll it into the same Post as Verdan's attack next turn; but she's likely to attempt to free Jakk'ari!

[WindStruck]

Seeing the situation suddenly turn into a mess, and Jakk'ari being clobbered and strangled unprovoked, some anger flares up in Isaera. To match the heat of her emotions, fire begins to coalesce between her hands. She launches the bolt of flames at Verdan's core.

Spoiler: ooc

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attack: (1d20+1)[5]

for 6 fire damage. DC 21 if hit, or maybe higher if this mass of plants is vulnerable to fire.

Also, +2 to "any spellcasting".

"Let him go," she says rigidly, despite the fact that it probably didn't understand.

[Feathersnow]

Mor and Lag attempt to wrest the Shaman free. They might have been more worried about doing this with a member of another race, but the hardiness of the Ur-Race of this plane was the stuff of fables.

Spoiler

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(1d20)[18] I honestly am not sure what the modifiers even are, but probably a +8?

[MrAbdiel]

Isaera's flame bolt lances out and collides with the verdurous bulk of the creature; but in mid flight, the projectivized flame corrodes and reduces as if the dense, ambient mana is flensing the spell's energy. When it contacts, it produces a scorch and some lingering flicker, but no lasting damage. But its attention swings in that moment towards Isaera - the old emnity between spark and branch flashing in its eyes - which in turn buys a moment for Mor'Lag to rush forward, meaty fists wrapping around the ankles of the hoisted shaman, and yanking him ferociously from the viney grip in a plume of snapped vine and shed leaves that dumbfounds the elemental, and frees the troll!

Spoiler: OOC Outcomes!

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Isaera's flamebolt missed - his magic number against ranged attacks is 10, by the way - but Mor'Lag overpowered the grip of Verdan and frees Jakk'ari long before the strangling could become a problem! Breaking a grab is an athletics or acrobatics check (it's fair to say an Athletics check for an outsider then, too), and the DC is 20... but rolling 18 and adding Mor'Lag's 5 strength, that's enough!

Marion remains to act this around before Verdan strikes again.

[BananaPhone]

Marion Mordis


Seeing that the front-liners had it in hand, Marion decided to help out a little further.

Narrowing her eyes and uttering a word of black magic, she willed a curse upon the plant creature...


ooc:

Casting Corruption on the Plant Creature again.

Another DC 19 toughness save, and another one next round.

Meanwhile, Vargheist will take another swing at the plant creature.

[MrAbdiel]

Vargheist hunkers in under the blows of the creature and begins raking away at the corroded vines of its core, while the corruption continues its dark work; and Marion's second application of the curse begins withering and desiccating the superficial layer of foliage on its right side. The injury the initial casting of corruption seems to have inflicted on this creature, a creature of life and green and perhaps the ideal target of such a spell, is immense; the reek of rapidly composted vegetable matter radiates from it, a blackness spreading from its middle; one of the bright blue eyes dimming and stuttering out.

Still, it lashes with both arms, the ligneous weapons distending into snatching cords of vine; one of which buffets but finds no purchase on Vargheist, one of which smashes into Emilia hard enough to disrupt her attack, rattle her body, and hoists her struggling into the air as vines snake around her throat!

Spoiler: OOC Damage Report!

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Verdan's Core is destroyed! The left and right sides remain unharmed, but he's down to two actions a turn instead of three!

Vargheist's attack on the core didn't do the trick, but the secondary tick of Corruption did the deed. Emelia swing, and whiffed.

Verdan whiffed at Vargheist with the left, but the right clobbered Emilia for a 2 degree injury, clocking her with a -1 to future toughness rolls and dazing her for this coming turn!

Big bad has attacked, all PCs may act again!

[Feathersnow]

Mor and Lag attempt to rip off the right arm of the monster!

Spoiler: OoC

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(1d20+5)[19]

[Plaids]

Jakk'ari will move out of arms reach of Verduran and attempt to either demoralize the arm grappling Emelia or any other ally or just the healthiest one if no one is grappled.

You've lost yourself, the only way to honor your duty now is to submit to us.

(1d20+3)[16] Rolling for Intimidation with +3 from presence.

[MrAbdiel]

Mor'Lag lays grabbing hands on the huge, twisted arm of the plant hulk; but twisting and straining, cannot yet find enough torsion to snap or break it. Emilia wheezes as the vines tighten around her neck, her plated legs kicking madly at the elemental... though it staggers a little in its ruthless strangling, turning its one good eye back to Jakk'ari for a moment, afflicted with a debilitating moment of clarity.

Spoiler: OOC Actions Resolutions!

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Mor'Lag hit, but Verdan soaked it! Still no damage on the Right or Left, with the middle out for the count. But Jakk'ari manages to demoralize the right - we'll interpret that as a more generalized demoralization, which hinders Verdan partially - specifically, by impairing one of his actions.

[WindStruck]

With one part of this elemental already withered away, and another part of it now trying to choke Emilia, Isaera turns her attention to the other "arm" that is not swarmed by bodies, hoping to get a clear shot and immolate it in flames.

Spoiler: ooc

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attack roll: (1d20+1)[6]

same as before!

for 6 fire damage. DC 21 if hit, or maybe higher if this mass of plants is vulnerable to fire.

Also, +2 to "any spellcasting".

[BananaPhone]

Marion Mordis

Seeing the plant thing stumbling and erring, Marion kept her distance and drew her hands up in a soft incantation. It only took half a second, but upon completion a streak of flame speared out from her hands and streaked towards the corrupted plant.



ooc:

Marion: Shadow and Fire: (1D20+4)[10]
Variable: Fire, Homing 1.


Varghest: Attacks the Plant Man again: (1D20+4)[14]

[MrAbdiel]

Marion's corrupting magics spend themselves killing sheets of sloughing foliage from Verdan's bulk, but neither these injuries not the skimming miss of the shadowy flame slows it down. With the bolt circling back as its energies trickle away, Emilia sees her moment and kicks hard with both feet against the creature; and its grip slackened by distraction and by Jakk'ari's indicting rebuke, she tears free, bounds gasping to her feet, and scoops up her sword.

Isaera's flame coalesces between her palms, transmuted from ambient magic in almost thoughtless perfection; but something goes wrong. The magical flame snaps into being larger and more intense than it ought to be, feeding off the environmental magic flow; and a reflexive effort to similarly overcharge the containment element of the spell is all that prevents the flames from bursting in the elven sorceress's face. When the overcharged bolt is loosed from her hands, it spirals out of its intended trajectory and bursts in the air behind in a bloom of unstable spellfire - but Isaera has had to draw instinctively on the mana-reserve within herself to turn a disaster into a miss. The fatigue of mana deprivation washes in like an unwelcome tide, numbed slightly by the magic in the air, but not immediately relieved.

The lambent blue eye of the creature turns, now; past the creatures nearest to it who are striking and breaking its grip, to the one who has introduced decay into is sacred realm. With a sound like a lion's roar muddied by crackling groan of an ancient bough snapping, Verdan barrels forward, barging past the swipes of Mor'Lag, Varghast, Jakk'ari and Emilia to whip both arms of snaking vines out at the Fel-gifted noblewoman...

Spoiler: OOC Damage Report!

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Isaera, you miss, and I'm also triggering your Mana Addiction complication, under the pretext that containing this particular miscast has forced Isaera to drain her personal mana reserve, which will leave Isaera Disabled and Staggered for this turn. Fortunately, IIRC, you planned for such a scenario with chemical contingencies, if you want to access them. Either way, gain a VP.

Marion's attack misses, Homing attack pending for next round, and Verdan soaks the secondary on the corruption. Varghast hits, but Verdan soaks!

Emilia, however, manages to break the grapple of the demoralized arm!

VERDAN'S TURN: He charges past all the folks in melee and attacks Marion TWICE. Just as well for him, because the first misses on a 13, but second hits on a 24. That'll be some rolls from you, Marion: the Alteraci needs to give us a Toughness Roll vs DC 20 against the damage, and a Strength or Dodge roll at DC 14 against the Fast grab.

Varghast, Jakk'ari and Mor'Lag can all make free melee attacks on him as he moves away from them.
Emilia did: she hit, but got soaked.

With that, it's the HERO'S TURN again!

[BananaPhone]

Marion Mordis

Marions eyes widen as the corrupted plant monster bursts past the wall of bodies and goes straight for her.

Her lips parting slightly as she steps back as that grotesque monstrosity bears down upon her, her loyal demon saves the day...


ooc:

Vargheist will use Interpose and take the hits for her.

Vargheist Toughness; (1D20+8)[11]

[Feathersnow]

Mor takes an attack of opportunity that Lag follows up on! The twins are in sync, like dancers they twist in a violent display of brutality!

Spoiler: rolls

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(1d20+8)[15] attack reduced by power attack
(1d20+8)[19] attack reduced by power attack

[MrAbdiel]

Mor's might fist grabs a handful of bark and bramble and tears it free from Verdan's bulk, revealing the sparking wisps of blue light angrilly sustaining the composite of the being within, in a shape and location roughly corresponding to a human humerus. Varghast roils like black smoke to throw itself in the path of the attack striking towards Marion. Thorny tendrils penetrate into the void walker's flank, and it releases an echoing moan that seems to suggest its suffering is partially sourced in some other place - somewhere deep, and acoustically agoraphobic. The life elemental hauls the near-weightless void creature off the ground; the lack of breath in it to choke out seeming not to deter its efforts in the slightest.

Spoiler: OOC Damage Report!

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Mor'Lag wonks the Right Side, inflicting a -1 penalty to future damage soaks and incrementing it towards destruction.
Varghast doesn't score a hit on his opportunity attack, but does save Marion some suffering by throwing himself into the path of the attack. He takes a -1 ongoing wound penalty, is dazed until the end of his next turn, and is grabbed.

Jakk'ari, Isaera and Marion still to act. Varghast can struggle against the grab, if he wants - but as a specialized pocket tank, he's rolling a flat d20 vs DC 20.

[WindStruck]

Isaera is caught off guard as the flame surges within her hands, threatening to engulf her and the entire place in flames. Perhaps not a bad way to kill off Verdan, but certainly bad for everyone else too. Using all her inner resources and discipline to try to contain the blaze, Isaera finds herself quite weakened and disoriented. But still, even though she somehow managed to exhaust herself in a matter of seconds, all the mana suffused in the environment was quickly flooding back into her.

More carefully this time, Isaera conjures up some flames, using only a minimal amount of mana, but it quickly grows despite this, and she hurls it at Verdan's left arm.

Spoiler: ooc

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Let me just make a roll first to see what other train wreck I get to RP with.

(1d20+1)[17]

[Plaids]

Upon seeing the glistening flesh exposed by Mor'Lag Jakk'ari joins Emelia in an attempt to strike wounded elemental. Seizing a an oblong sheet of rock he charges at Verdan hoping to free the wild guardian.
The heart is exposed; liberate the protector!

Spoiler: Results

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I rolled a 5 in the OOC chat. So Jakk'ari probably is not hitting.

[MrAbdiel]

Emelia and Jakk'ari launch in together; the troll with a spar of rock, the crusader with her flashing sword; but Verdan drops his shoulder and both weapons thunk into the layered, twisted rootwork that forms his hardened torso - scarred by Isaera's flames and Mor'Lag's blow, but resilient still.

Spoiler: Damage Report!

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Jakk'ari misses, Emilia Crits - but Verdan rolls a 25 and beats even her crit's 24 DC. Oof! Marion and Varghast to go this round, including the repeat attack on the missed attack from last round. Then it's Verdan's turn again. With one of the three portions broken, and a second injured, your party is well on its way to victory, having only taken damage to the tank-demon and the regenerating shaman!