The acolyte, seeing that the danger lay in an aisle other than the one she was inspecting, moved towards the aisle occupied by the thug. Having a clear line of sight to Araerys from this position, she muttered a few words in the same language as her priestess, but the familiarity of the priestess's words were not duplicated in hers. She looked upon the bard both with trepidation and anxiety, her wrist shaking as she pointed her webbed hand towards her opponent. "Поражение Божественного!" she called out, her voice tremulous yet commanding. A thin greenish light of divine radiance began to pool around Ary's feet.

>Mechanics: The acolyte targets Ary with a spell. Ary must roll a DEX save. She passes with a 19, to no effect as the green light sparks dangerously where Ary previously stood.

>Mentioned: @corneredbliss

>Next: @Mistiel

Ceria shielded herself against the floor against the horrendous scorching, lightning-fast attack from the miniature dragon. How had she missed it up in the front of the room? For a tiny little thing, it certainly had its way with her. That she had not taken into account a flying creature being able to spot her so easily out of cover was frankly embarrassing. The thought of Araerys seeing her so helpless lit a fire in the pure elf's belly and upon the drake finishing its attack, Ceria leapt directly to her feet and drew her bow, ignoring the pain that made her entire body feel boiled.

She instinctively ran into the pew in front of Araerys, as close to the middle aisle as she could get. Seeing Araerys behind her in trouble, Ceria attempted to nock an arrow; this one felt a little different in her hands, almost vibrating a little like the wood wanted to be shot. She looked around for the most important target, finally deciding between two of the magical targets in the front of the church. When one nervous-looking one tried to cast something, Ceria muttered, "Sorry sweetie" under her breath and fired the arrow arcing over the space and pews between them. The strike seemed to strike dead center and true, thorny vines ripping out of the cold marble church floor around the girl's feet and clutching at all parts of her bodice. Ceria didn't know where this had come from, but she suspected that her inner being had attuned itself with that arrow and did not complain one bit.

The vines sprouting from the arrow in the poor girl's esophagus began to wrap around her throat and other limbs and squeeze until she was on her knees and blue in the face. With a final desperate choking gasp and what might have been a sob, the acolyte fell to the floor dead and tears flew freely down Ceria's face as she looked away quickly and toward the back of the church where the rest of her party seemed to be. She had had no control over those vines whatsoever, couldn't make them stop. They just kept on squeezing and squeezing, killing....



@corneredbliss @Turbowraith

((DM Note: Ghosting @Turbowraith))

At the sound of battle erupting inside the cathedral, Lex took this opportunity to charge through the doorway, his hand outstretched towards the thug before him as his vengeful mark appeared on the enemy's forehead. As he came within striking distance, Lex brought his maul up from behind him arcing it over his head to smash downwards towards the thug, the heavy weight of the weapon crashing down on the enemy's leather armor as if it weren't even there.

>Mechanics: Lex casts Hunter's Mark on the thug, then rolls an 18 to hit, dealing 12 + 2 bludgeoning damage.
>Currently Concentrating on Hunter's Mark. 2 / 3 spell slots remaining.

The thug retaliates with a swing of his own from his maul, catching the Paladin under his helmet with the blunt side of the weapon. He then strafes around Lex to stand in the way of those at the door, hoping to corral them away from his Priestess. The sahuagin woman, on the other hand, summoned a trident to appear just behind Lex, and it whacked him on the back of his head as she focused her attention on the archer that slew her acolyte. A magical incantation was muttered, and Ceria began to feel her body seizing up.

>Mechanics: Thug hits Lex for 5 bludgeoning damage. He must make a Constitution Saving throw to maintain Concentration on Hunter's Mark. The Priestess casts Spiritual Weapon, hitting Lex for an additional 6 damage and forcing a second Concentration check. She then casts a spell on Ceria, who must make a Wisdom Saving throw.

>Affected: @Turbowraith, @Mistiel - both must make saves. Ceria fails her save and is Paralyzed by Hold Person.

>Next: @Ms Ravenwinter

As the door creaked open, the familiar echoes of screaming began. Yvah froze for a second. Not in shock of potentially being seen, but being swiftly taken aback to the bloodier days of her youth. The thought was shaken just as quickly as it appeared, and Yvah pushed her breath calmly outward as inner power surged through her into a blinding sprint. She darted across the empty room and swatted the next door open.

Of all of the things that she witnessed in the split second where she charged into the cathedral proper, one thing immediately burned into her mind. Choking. Strangling. Just like him.

As Yvah reached for the blade at her thigh, a smile struck her. But this was unlike her, as combat was the only time where she didn't smile. She seemed to fight with an intense focus that she otherwise in unable to summon. But in this moment, the battle trance bled away from her eyes, replaced instead with sadistic glee and anger.

Her gaze widened, her mad dash did not relent, and the axe flew from her fingers with disturbing grace. A wet, squishy, cracking sound accompanied her footfalls as the blade buried itself into the base of the thug's skull.
Within a frantic heartbeat, Yvah was already upon the man's fresh corpse. With a crack, she landed an elbow strike against the side of his skull. The same arm extended forward and grabbed him by the face, forcing him to fall backward as a knee darted upward to crush his spine. Her foot padded the ground, pivoted, and she spun as the other leg came to sweep kick the thug's sundered body, now falling violently to the side with a few more broken bones.

Yvah whipped around behind her as she heard approaching footsteps. It was Daisy, who was now fully viewing the disturbing and crazed bastardization of Yvah's chipper grin.

Before Araerys was able to move too far from her original position, the drake that had spotted Ceria had attacked, swooping down upon her and leaving her nearly dead where she lay. It seemed that the gods were toying with her today, dropping disaster and blessing in alternate fashion, perhaps to test her patience. It wasn't so much her patience that was being tested, however; more so her sanity from the constant back and forth of the day's events. And much like the earlier battle they had plunged into, the injuries began early on. The elf must have been in bad shape judging from the aggression of the attacks inflicted upon her, and almost immediately the half-breed snapped out of her curious - and admittedly, selfish - decision to investigate the altar further.

In the same instant that Araerys had made the decision to turn back for the elf, a greenish portal of light began growing at her feet. Her guilt quickly dissipated into fear as the foreign, toxic-colored glow grew, trying to engulf her. Reflex urged her to jump away from the pool, sidestepping further into the pew and nimbly jumping over the back of the one ahead of her as it sparked dangerously in her wake. Ary landed on light feet beside Ceria just as the girl swiftly loosed an arrow that arched above her head.

Her gaze followed the projectile as it found a home in the acolyte's esophagus. Somehow vines sprouted from the floor at the acolyte's feet and twisted and braided themselves up her body until she could no longer stand. In mere seconds her body fell to the floor, lifeless, and when Araerys turned back to her companion, she was surprised to see that tears were falling freely down her cheeks. She was still watching the vicious greenery work the acolyte in its hold, and without hesitation, Ary took Ceria's cheek in her palm and gently forced the girl to look at her face. With her free hand, she quickly made the gestures for the spell, and hurriedly murmured the words between them. "Hold it together, girl," she then said in a rushed, yet comforting, whisper, "The time for tears is later, when we leave here with our lives." She stepped aside and released the full blood's face, so that they now were watching the rest of the room.

Another thing that had been distracting Daisy during her shot was the sudden appearance of a much less sane version of her cat-friend. But she did do something important at least, by taking out the thug. Daisy could only return the favor while also stopping the assault on Ceria (which bordered on more important, as people suddenly changing dispositions was par for course in her homeland and to those linked somehow to her patron) by pinning the drake to the wall. She whispered a quick haiku and pointed at the drake before stepping toward it, and loading and firing her crossbow again.

"You would use me for a pincushion?!" the drake screamed out angrily as it dive-bombed towards Yvah. Summoning all the fury its diminutive stature could hold, it unleashed a blast of fiery energy towards the entrance of the cathedral, setting the wooden doors on fire in the stone doorway. As the trio ducked out of the way to lessen the impact, the drake cackled. "Your demise is tonight!"

>Mechanics: Yvah, Daisy, and Ulor must make a DEX Save or take 22 fire damage, half on a passed save. Daisy must also make a Constitution Save to maintain concentration on Hex. Daisy fails her DEX Save but passes the CON Save. Ulor and Yvah fail their saves, and fall unconscious.

Ulor fails his first Death Save with a 3.

>Mentioned: @Ermine, @Ms Ravenwinter, @Oraculum

At the end of Ceria's turn, she may make another WIS save to end the paralysis effect, which she passes with a 19. Ceria is no longer paralyzed!

>Next: @Turbowraith

Right as the paralysis magic that held Ceria in place wore off, she saw the drake dive bomb three of her party and set the entire doorway ablaze along with them. As she saw Ulor fall and Daisy obviously in pain, she caught herself from shouting out "No!" by clapping a hand over her mouth. She didn't want anymore attention drawn to herself than necessary, but she still had a new arrow nocked and struggled with the decision of whether to shoot the dodgy red menace or the priestess who had immobilized her. The decision took quite awhile.

With the hired muscle dead, Lex immediately assessed the situation at hand. Since the half-fish priestess was well outside of the paladin's immediate vicinity, he turned to the more present threat and swung his maul downwards in an attempt to bash the creature into submission. Despite attacking the tiny draconid, the flaming sigil that fueled Lex's supernatural focus had appeared on the priestess instead, possibly to ensure that no one would escape so easily this time.

As the door erupted into flames and two members of the party fell, an evil grin appeared on the face of the priestess. Before, she had huddled in the corner, trying to remain away from the intruders, but now, the priestess marched down the aisle, willing to show her true power. "Rise, drake, and burn them to ashes!" she called to her sole ally as the wounds that were previously spouting small dribbles of blood now began to close. "And you two..." she turned to Ceria and Ary as she gestured towards them, her hands forming the shape of a coiling serpent in greenish mist as it passed over the both of them. "Why don't you be good girls and stay right there?"

>Mechanics: The Priestess casts Healing Word on the Drake. She then casts Hold Person at lvl 3 on both Ceria and Ary. Both must make a WIS save. Ceria and Ary pass their saves.

>Affected: @Mistiel@corneredbliss

>Next: @Ms Ravenwinter must make a Death Saving Throw. Ary is up afterwards.

Araerys, unaffected by the paralyzation, grimaced at the Priestess's command. Unable to do anything for the elf beside her, she quickly whipped around in the direction of the drake, knowing it wouldn't hesitate to obey his mistress. She rushed forward a few feet just before a harsh and disturbing melody escaped her, aimed towards the flying monster, hoping to bring it down - or at least distract it - before it could do any more damage with its' flames.

Having two companions downed in a few seconds wasn't exactly ideal, especially when she had choice words for the fishgirl and a crossbow bolt for the drake's larynx. She'd rather not have her friend's and the crazy person's carried away just yet, however, so Daisy frustratedly bent down and pulled out a potion she'd rather drink herself, uncorked it, picked up Yvah just a little, and poured the potion into her mouth while massaging her throat. She took a little time out of her very busy schedule to look over at her still octopus-less friend and yell, "hey, your fishy girlfriend over there could use some of your unique charm!"

>Mechanics: Daisy feeds a potion of healing to Yvah, for 7 HP, and uses her tiefling-iest Healing Word yet to give Ulor 8 HP.

>Mentioned: @Ms Ravenwinter and @Oraculum

>@JBRam2002 is up!

With the tiefling's healing incantation, the drake snarled and turned its attention to Daisy. The fire burned in its eyes as it struck forward, lunging at her with its maw. Daisy barely avoided its bite as the teeth glanced off her chain shirt, tearing slightly at the overshirt she wore. Its tail swung around in its fury, but Daisy deftly ducked under it as she fed the potion to Yvah, serving only to anger the drake further. "Stay still and die!" it hollered.

>Mechanics: Whiff!

>Mentioned: @Ermine

>Next: @Oraculum - Hey, you're not dead!

As the drake breathed out a fiery gout which seemed to be far too large to issue from something of that size, Ulor rapidly stepped, or rather jumped, backwards to avoid the flames which spread, crackling and roaring, over the entire doorway. However, he was evidently not rapid enough, and several of the blaze's tongues lashed at him, leaving more incandescent sproutlings over his body. Despite his efforts to stifle the nascent fires, they spread hungrily, gnawing at several parts of him at once in the shape of searing teeth, and growing broader by the instant. He flailed, dimly aware he might not be standing any longer. At least the flames were abating, though the same could not be said of the burns - and the pain - they had left clearly were not.

For some moments he remained outwardly still, though invisibly struggling, without any success, to lift himself into action again. Then, through the vague din that remained of his perception of the outside world, he heard the green tiefling's voice, in such a manner as though it had been directed to his attention, with or without the barrier of sensory damage, by some less than natural means. By all accounts, it did not seem to be anything unusual by her standards; yet something in it seemed to awake Ulor's curiosity. With strangely renewed strength, he lifted his gaze towards the interior of the cathedral, now clearly visible through the still burning doorway.

Effectively, back there in the further aisle, there was a figure he had not noticed before. Upon observing it better, his expression (or what remained visible of it) shifted from curiosity to the mark of a strangely contemplative trance which was frankly somewhat disquieting to observe. Whatever it was, it did not seem to prevent him from beginning to whisper once again, conjuring a spectral blast to send flying towards his new target.

As the front of Daisy's outfit got torn by the drake, Ceria shouted, "Enough is enough, you scaly fuck! We came in here to pay our respects to your deity and you go on and attack us without provocation? Stop hurting my friends!" Lapsing into Elvish while raising her bow with an arrow nocked, Ceria screams, "Amin feuya ten' lle!" and fires straight for the drake's center of mass. The arrow smacks the dodgy flying lizard right up behind its tail and clearly hurts more than just its dignity.

It was impossible to tell if Lex was even slightly dismayed at the sight of the loud-mouthed pest's restored vitality, but if the ensuing swiftness of his actions was anything to go by, dispatching the reptile had taken priority over assaulting the priestess, who was being taken care of by the others. It seemed that Ulor and the feline were being rallied by the green woman as well, relieving the paladin from any such duties, and allowing him to turn his undivided attention the the adversaries at hand. His hammer tore through the air, but this time it was the weapon's broad side that saw use as the hammer's ample mass was utilized to its' full extent.

The blow from the hammer clipped the drake's wing, sending it slightly off its course as the heavy head scraped along the scales of the draconic figure. However, asides from briefly disorienting the drake, to which it recovered nearly instantly, it seemed to not deal any true damage. As the drake righted itself, the priestess woman took off with a sprint towards the door through which Yvah had recently passed through, pulling the hovering trident along towards her as she ran. It jabbed towards Lex who easily batted it away with his shield. The priestess gave the paladin a furious snarl as she rounded the corner, her hand gripping the door's jamb and pulling her inside. The door then slammed closed behind her, and a click of a lock being turned could be heard.

>Mentioned: @Turbowraith

>Next: @Ms Ravenwinter

With the soothing warmth of Daisy's presence and the magic flowing into Yvah's rapidly closing wounds, the rogue's eyes flicked open with a burning flash of anger. With a motion, Yvah swatted the emptied vial to shatter across the floor and swung her body around. She scrambled to her feet and snatched up her staff. Shoving Daisy aside, Yvah slid around the drake's position. Clutching her staff in both palms, she heaved her body around to prepare for her strike, the weapon swinging in an upward snap and colliding with the drake's underbelly. The scales crunched and the skeleton underneath buckled at the impact and with an adolescent yelp, the drake lifelessly flailed in the air.

The follow-through had Yvah's staff in her off hand. As she saw the drake begin to plummet, she stepped one foot forward into a widened stance and followed it with a punch that sent the tiny draconoid flying sideward. Yvah's staff clattered to the ground as she leaped at the thing, foot lodging itself squarely into the drake's neck.

With her comrades near the still-flaming doorway dealing damage to the irksome drake, Araerys focused her attention on the Priestess, who was sprinting to the doorway their cat-gone-rogue (an issue to address later) had entered through mere minutes before. "She's trying to flee!" the bard shouted to shift Ceria's attention towards the woman as she herself bolted after her. There couldn't be coincidence about it; whatever was happening prior to their unfortunate interruption had to be of a significant nature. The Priestess's importance in the situation grew by the second, seemingly solidified by the fact that she was trying to escape from the group unscathed and without her precious drake.

Unfortunately, the creature had too much of a head start, and had slipped through into the other room, slamming the door shut before the half-elf could grab onto her. She could hear the lock clicking into place and instinctively spoke the words of a very familiar spell, almost growling them out with the adrenaline that was pumping through her veins. She skidded to a halt halfway to the heavy wood just as a loud knock! emanated from it. Without missing a beat, Araerys called back to anyone who was close enough to take action. "The door is unlocked!"



Mentioned: @Mistiel
Up Next: @Ermine

"Don't run! Running just makes us want to hurt you. We really just kind of wanted to talk!" Daisy started quietly, raising her volume, as she followed after the priestess. After trying to kick in the door overdramatically before opening it like a normal person with the handle, she fired a crossbow bolt at her, but missed as a result of the movement again. "That was just a warning!" Must cover it up, after all. Especially since this was the second time in under a minute kicking down a door interfered with her shot. Stupid spindly legs.

>Daisy moves toward the door and attempts to kick it in (3). Failing that, just opens it as normal.
>She transfers Hex (Strength checks) to the Priestess, then uses her crossbow. She misses with an 8.
>Persuasion check: 8.
>Next: @Oraculum