Dragoknighte

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 13/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: None Location: Avonshire Town Center->Municipal Building Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: Not pleased.

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If there was one thing to be glad of, it was that for once the townsfolk of this (formerly) accursed place came out to help for once, rather than merely gawk and cause more problems. Turns out all it took was the threat of a potentially all-consuming blaze after everything else remotely dangerous had been dealt with. Despite having just risked her life for the sake of these people, Marita found herself growing almost more angry with those who had been content to cower as their neighbors were caged and nearly killed than the villains who had perpetrated the crimes. Luckily for everyone there, Kathryn answered all their questions before she could tell them off. Regardless, the pitch fire was being dealt with so they could focus on other things.

For Marita, it was taking a moment to step aside and unwind a bit. The past several hours had been a series of increasingly tense and traumatic moments building on each other, and only the gods knew what they were about to find at the Municipal Building. While they had a moment of relative peace she could bring her emotional state down closer to something approaching normal. Primarily this involved taking several deep, slow breaths and realizing that her back, neck and legs were all held tense and to manually unclench them.

After this brief reset, Kathryn called her over and presented her with a pouch. The cleric wasn't sure why Kathryn couldn't just hold it herself, but didn't see much of a reason to turn down such a trivial task. When she took hold of the sack, the weight of the bag along with the feeling of the contents jostling inside told her that there was coin inside, and a not insignificant amount either. Although she still didn't understand why the warrior didn't just hold onto it herself, she immediately understood why she was the one being entrusted with the goods. Kosara would only bring more unwanted attention from the townsfolk, and Victoria would simply pocket it and pretend like she lost it. Blackberry... well he could also probably hold onto it, but they had only known him for less than a day and it was a lot of money.

All their business at the town center finally taken care of, Marita followed behind Kathryn, relying on the light of her hammer to lead the way as one of the aphotically-challenged members of the group. She never put away her mace. Although she had said that if they were to run into any trouble that they should focus on escape, if it came down to it, she was one of the ones best suited to making time for the others to evacuate. It never had to come to pass, but the lack of any signs of life were more unsettling.

The smell, that foul, rancid stench. Marita seemed to be far more sensitive to it than the rest of the party. She could barely stand it even at the building's entrance, and it only grew more putrid as they ventured further. She had to cover her nose with her arm to limit the amount of air she could breathe in at once. Even if she had access to a free hand to hold her nose closed, she dared not inhale the filth through her mouth. As distracted as she was by the sensory assault of the municipal building, she tried to study their surroundings as best as she could as they made their way through.

And then they came into the jail. It would be a lie to say that she was surprised at what lie in store for them, after all, to create the abominations that they had just battled, one needed a lot of materials, and they were not cleanly put together. But she was not prepared to see the grisly details of how that sausage was made. All the filth she had been forced to confront up to this point already had made her nauseous, but it was at this point that Marita was very glad that she had not eaten much over the past few days. Beyond disgust, the next overwhelmingly powerful emotion was the regret that Cavendish had only died once in an extremely painful manner, and that she could not Spare the Dying his pre-melted corpse and add to his suffering herself.

It took a very long time for Marita to feel comfortable enough to speak, but when she did, she had much to say. She expected to have to inform the others on the nature of the gods worshipped in the area based on her trip to the temple in Darensby, but Victoria beat her to the punch. Perhaps she had made a visit there before she had.

"Although this town would likely be better off with this place burnt to the ground, we are not going to commit arson, especially without consulting any of the locals. Secondly, as horrific as this place is, it's important that it remain intact at least for now as evidence for what's been going on in Avonshire. We could likely return to Gregory and simply tell him what Cavendish has done with the testification of Robert and the others, but having hard, irrefutable proof of the atrocities committed will make the legal end of things much cleaner and safer for us."

"As far as purification of the premises goes, I'm likely the most qualified person in the region for such a task, and this feels beyond my capabilities. Victoria gave some names, but to those unfamiliar, the patrons of this area are mostly of the agricultural sort, not the type who would have much experience dealing with this profanity. As for what the ritual circles are for, this is simply a guess, but I think they were used to animate these things from being a mere mass of flesh and filth into mindless puppets to be wielded by Cavendish. I do not wish to remain here long enough to properly study them."

"And of the ones who came back? We don't know who all came back. Even of the missing persons we accidentally stumbled on Mr. Porter. Perhaps a more thorough search of the township could find them, I'm not confident given our limited manpower and with the harvest festival still technically in swing. Robert... we should wait until the morning sun before trying to seek him out. Rather than trying to dig further, right now we should probably return to Lizbeth or Mallard. I, I've just had enough of this place." Marita's voice cracked a bit at the last sentence. In hindsight, it would have been better had they waited until morning to come here, but this trip did tell her that there was likely one or more other hideaways in town for the wererat population for them to root out. The guard house was likely one. Any others? Well that was likely a problem better solved by someone else. Someone with more resources at their disposal.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 13/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: None Location: Avonshire Town Center Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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Now having had a moment to better organize her thoughts, Marita tried to lay out all the courses of actions they could take and the pros and cons of each. The issue most immediate in their vicinity was the fire. Strangely enough, despite potentially posing the most widespread damage to the township, it was likely of least concern to handle. Everything was soaked from the rain and the flames didn't appear to be spreading. Furthermore, nobody here really knew how to deal with burning pitch. That said, it really did not sit with her right to ignore it and assume that all would be fine based on that little evidence.

The second problem at hand was the location of the wererat guards. They were far too much of a risk to allow them to run around unchecked, unfortunately they were probably long gone, and finding them would take far more manpower than just the 5 of them. This one they would probably just have to let go until it came back to bite them in the arse.

The third option they could choose to pursue was visiting the Municipal Building and seeing what was going on over there. This proposed the most danger to them immediately. That building was a massive unknown in what they would find, and everyone was at the very least exhausted from the two fights they had had already been through today. On the other hand, there was a decently high chance that that's where the guards had fled to, and they might be scrabbling to abscond with anything of value/incriminating. The building would still be there tomorrow, but not necessarily everything/one inside of it.

And lastly they could attempt to track down the various people they had befriended. Various people had been suggested and they couldn't do all of them at once (without splitting up entirely, which was too risky even with the Constable dead), but the end result would essentially be the same no matter who they went after. In the grand scheme of things, this would accomplish the least, but they would personally know that their actions tonight did more than just 'save the town' in the abstract. They would need to check in on Lizbeth and Mallard eventually, but this was much less time sensitive.

Now that she had their options laid out like this, her thinking on what they should do aligned much differently than her initial instincts told her. She would like to be able to not have to only pick one, but that wasn't a real possibility for them. It was at this time that Kathryn made the discovery that the abominations they had battled were made of people. The cleric turned towards the half-giant, and in doing so, her foot accidentally knocked into one of Cavendish's gloves. Ash pours out of the garment, but in the ash was the glint of gold. Her eye was drawn to it almost immediately. Although she wasn't motivated by treasure as Victoria was, Marita did love jewelry and fine wear. Quietly, she picked out the ring from the ash. She would need to thoroughly wash it before she would consider wearing it, but far be it from her to simply leave it discarded.

That bit of avarice aside, Marita approached Kathryn to looked over the corpses she had been inspecting. Up until now she hadn't thought about where the things had come from, but she wasn't surprised about this finding in the slightest. Misshapen and rodentlike as they were, the things were far too humanoid to be stitched together from the likes of livestock the way Morty was. Cavendish certainly was not the type to let something as trivial as ethics get in the way of constructing puppets for his command.

"It's likely that this is what happened to those that disappeared and never turned up again." A statement that those with more tact would likely not have said, but there wasn't use in skirting around the topic now. "Perhaps if we had known about this weeks ago we could have been able to stop this, but at least their remains are no longer being desecrated." A statement that could be interpreted as offensive to Victoria, but even if Marita had been thinking about the bard's emotions, she doubted that even the bard would think that what Cavendish had done to create the flesh golems was anything but profane.

Speaking of Victoria, she directly approached Marita and offered her cloak. The half-elf was all smiles and friendly helpfulness, but her words could very easily be mockery. Marita narrowed her eyes and tried to suss out her intentions. Victoria was not as unreadable as she usually was, likely because of the encounter they had just had. She seemed to be forcing herself to act more cheerful than she really was. In a way it was similar to Kosara but intentionally rather than as an act of cognitive dissonance. Perhaps the bard was more shaken up by what had been said to her than she let on. After all, if somebody was likely to try to throw her out, it was the law cleric. Marita concluded that V was not acting out of malice right now and would treat her gesture as such.

"No thank you, I'd rather not ruin your clothes as well," she responded flatly. Not interpreting the words as an attack didn't mean that she was going to attempt to muster the kind of facade of friendliness that those like V were capable of. "And on second thought, I think it's best if we visit the Municipal Building as soon as possible. We're in no shape for another confrontation like the one we just had, but I have a feeling that if we put off going there even until morning, we'll miss out on something important. If we come across something we can't handle, we will just need to prioritize escape before combat."

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 13/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: None Location: Avonshire Town Center Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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The sudden onset of darkness set Marita on edge. She as well as everyone else was too worn out to deal with much more in combat, let alone any great powers of evil that may have decided to disgrace the township with their presence. Fortunately for them, it did not appear that it had a corporeal form with which to threaten them, but this brought into clarity for Marita how out of their depth they were at the moment. However, one other point stuck out to her from the final conversation Cavendish had with his patron, that he had mostly accomplished what he had been trying to do, and that was still the biggest pain point in her understanding of the situation: just what exactly was the constable trying to do over the past few months? If she couldn't figure it out, chances were that the next mortal this being managed to manipulate into doing its bidding would be able to finish it without much difficulty, which could spell disaster.

That said, Marita watched on as Cavendish rapidly rotted and melted away. It was a grisly sight, but she had seen more than her fair share of carnage, the more offputting aspect of the destruction of Cavendish was how disgusting it had been. Perhaps she should have been expecting it given the nature of lycanthropy being spread along with the the filth that the flesh abominations arose from, but the sight of flesh turning to maggot-ridden sludge made her stomach churn more than the screams of anguish or tendrils of darkness.

Marita's body tensed up when the voice turned its attention to the party. Catching the attention of such an entity could only bring trouble upon their heads, and she had had more than enough of that over the past few days. She listened to its terms and looked at each of the others for their reactions to their offers, if there was any. It was actually very relieving personally that she had already told the others early on about her past to some limited degree; she didn't have to worry about getting outted against her will by a shadowy patron of disease and vermin.

As far as the deal offered to her, she at most gave it half an unformed thought. The cleric was far more sympathetic to the likes of devils than most people, let alone clerics of Law deities, but her experiences with outsiders made her a fair bit more knowledgeable and tolerant of their tactics than the others here. Was it trying to imply that it could reunite her with a family member or old friend who survived? She did miss her family, but it wasn't something she desperately wanted, especially not from something she just watched melt its servant. There wasn't much that it could offer her at this moment that she'd be seriously tempted by.

What she was more interested in was if it held any sway over the others. Kathryn, Blackberry and Kosara all reacted with varying levels of severe psychological distress, completely normal for those who have not had many dealings with the profane. Oddly enough, she was the only one directly offered anything, the others were attacked at perceived weaknesses regarding their pasts. Unsurprisingly, Victoria handled this turn of events the best out of the rest, Marita couldn't tell what she thought of it, but knowing the bard, she likely at least considered the offer being made. Victoria had shown herself to be the type to easily refuse chances at personal gain. The presence's words about their little necromancer also was the one that piqued her interest most. She knew from the moment she met Victoria that she was a bad omen, but it had simply been her intuition up until this point. She never would have expected to receive validation from a source like this, but it was perhaps the second most valuable thing it told them in its short time there. It wasn't likely that the others paid much attention to that since they were too busy dealing with the rest of the trauma of the situation, but Marita wouldn't forget and she'd pry out the meaning of those words from the bard one way or another.

When the voice finally left and they were left to their own devices, she wasn't entirely sure where to go from where they were. From the outside perspective, they had successfully saved the township and potentially the rest of the harvest festival as well as accomplishing the mission the Sheriff had sent them on and more. But as far as Marita was concerned, they hadn't won much of anything at all. The root of the issue hadn't been dealt with, and it was only a matter of time before something else sprang up to take its place. But what exactly they could do, if anything was a massive question mark.

Well, it wouldn't hurt to take stock of the situation. At this point, she doubted that the guards were still around after the previous display. If getting shouted at by your boss wasn't enough to get you to actively engage in the battle, watching him be ripped apart by the dark forces he wielded definitely wouldn't stoke the flames of morale. On the part of the cleric, her appearance was an absolute mess. The outfit she wore was completely ruined, burned and covered in blood and viscera. She'd need to thoroughly bathe to get the dead rat smell off of her. But compared to most everyone else, she was better off by far. The only wounds she had suffered during this entire mission were a few burns from her march through fire, and they would heal rather quickly.

"I'm fine." Marita replied to BB, as she quickly fixed up her hair. "Unless someone needs immediate medical attention, we should get some people to help control this fire before it burns the entire town down, then we should check in on Cecily."

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 13/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: Concentration - Shield of Faith, Inspiration (1->0) Location: C10->B11 Action: Attack: Cavendish Bonus Action: Spiritual weapon (-A?10, Attack: Cavendish) Reaction: N/A

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Thanks to Kathryn's timely net usage, they finally had the Constable pinned down to where they could beat him to a pulp. At least in theory. Despite his extremely vulnerable position, he somehow managed to remain as slippery as ever. Perhap it was a side effect of his pact with the dark powers. Or maybe he was just so much of a slimy coward that he could slip out of the grip of Wee Jas herself, at least for awhile. She would see to it that he did not evade Hell any longer.

Marita ran through the rats and brought her mace down on from on high, aiming to cave his head in. During this brief moment they both made eye contact. In his cold eyes she saw anger that he was in such a predicament in the first place, desperation to be free and yet that same smug sense of self-superiority he had carried with him since they first met at the town gates not 2 days prior. Conversely, what the constable was met with was a gaze of contempt for the small rodent at her feet, fury that was colder than the bitter autumn rain, but above all else: Judgment. The light of the flames in that moment reflected more brightly from her mace than any point in the battlefield, as if giving her strike the boon from her god to vanquish the twisted abuser of the law before her. And as she brought down her mace to mete justice, Cavendish managed to roll out of the way. He had managed to buy himself that much more time to potentially turn this battle back around.

Is what he might have thought before he suddenly found himself unable to breathe. The spiritual dagger had struck just after her mace and planted itself directly into his trachea. The warlock struggled and writhed, spitting up blood and burbling as blood spilled from the wound in his neck, but he was unable to do anything about his imminent demise. Marita stood up and stared at him, looking rather unsatisfied despite landing the finishing blow. It was then that for the first time she spoke directly to the Constable.

Nis khach nis chasks uzosk kamnim.

The infernal tongue dropped with the weight of a curse rather than a mortal's sentence. Almost as if it carried the same kind of divine authority as her magic. After her first and final words to the crooked lawman, he finally stopped his struggling and lay still, eyes open and cold like a marketplace fish. All in all it was a rather anti-climatic end for one with such grand ambitions as him, but Marita didn't let her guard down just yet. All the visible threats had been dealt with, but there was still the massive mystery at hand of the guardsmen and what exactly was going on with them.

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Infernal translation: Burn in the Nine Hells forever.

@Sigil Victoria's turn if combat's still going

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: Concentration - Shield of Faith, Inspiration (1) Location: F8->C10 Action: Dodge Bonus Action: Spiritual weapon (-A?10, Attack: Cavendish) Reaction: N/A

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Marita wasn't sure what was going on with the crossbow situation and at this point she wasn't sure if she should care. At the very least, she knew that she shouldn't waste anymore time trying to locate where they might be with he limited visual capabilities when the Constable was right there and more than willing to try killing her and all her compatriots. As long as nothing continued to happen from that front, they would be spared further Judgment.

Speaking of which, Marita focused back on her spiritual weapon, making another stab at the wererat, and finally it managed to find purchase, slipping through the cracks in his armor to solidly sink into his flesh. It wasn't as deep a blow as she would have liked, and he still stood firm, but it was more success than she had had in the past 30 seconds or so.

The other thing that required her attention were her teammates' positions. Finally, others were making a direct move on the Constable's position, which was a high-risk, moderate reward position. He had managed to slay an admittedly heavily wounded abomination in a single blow, and if he managed to do something similar to Kathryn or BB while she wasn't close enough to help, things could get much stickier very quickly. Unfortunately, Marita had very little magical stamina left in her, so she needed to be very conservative with her divine talents, withholding their use until absolutely necessary, but she would at least not leave the others stranded with the beast.

The cleric took in a single large breath and steeled herself as she ran through the fire to get close to, but not quite within reach of the two close combat fighters, all the while focusing one making herself a difficult target to hit in case the warlock decided to direct his ire in her direction. Next round if they were both standing, she would be likely introduce his face to her mace.

@Sigil V

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: Concentration - Shield of Faith, Inspiration (spent) Location: F8 Action: Perception Bonus Action: Spiritual weapon (-A?10, Attack: Cavendish) Reaction: N/A

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The suddenly discharge of a crossbow bolt and its path through the trees snapped Marita's attention away from Cavendish. The two guards had spent so long out of sight, she had assumed they had run off long ago. This single bolt so far into the conflict did not bode well. The cleric's focus changed from avoiding an attack by the constable to attempting to spot the location of at least one of the other combatants. If she could find them, they could better avoid getting shot at while dealing with the warlock.

As her eyes scanned through the trees, she made sure to have her weapon make another attack on the rat to keep him from getting complacent. Perhaps because her attention was split, her dagger failed yet again to draw blood, although this time it at least managed to make contact, bouncing off of his armor, just a degree or two off from finding its way into a weak point. Furthermore, despite her best efforts, she was not able to see any indication of the marksmen, the gloom of the night and fog successfully obscuring them, even with the light of the fire to provide the human-sighted some aid.

@Sigil V

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: Concentration - Shield of Faith Location: F8 Action: Dodge Bonus Action: Spiritual weapon (-A?10, Attack: Cavendish) Reaction: N/A

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The cleric did not take kindly to being attacked. When she felt the impact of the blast, she snapped around to glare at the Constable as the spiritual dagger to his backside made her fury known... by missing him entirely. He didn't even need to dodge the blow, it simply swung at air. Another flub like this and Marita was going to scream. She was already angry enough with everything Cavendish had done up until now and his grating attempts at witty wordplay. Perhaps he thought himself a jester with all the quips that spewed from his mouth. She could only hope that giving him a real sense of danger by stabbing him would get him to shut his trap.

However, her anger aside, she wasn't going to rush through the fire and rats to get to him. That would simply be foolish. She could also attempt to get out of range of his attacks, either by finding cover or making more space, but she didn't like that either. Right now, the fact that he was targeting her meant that he wasn't going after the people they were trying to protect as they hopefully fled to safety. So she would leverage that, at least for now. Marita resolved to stand her ground and put her shield up, ready to defend against whatever new attacks he might throw her way.

@Sigil V's up

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: Concentration - Shield of Faith Location: F10->F8 Action: Attack: Cage Bonus Action: Spiritual weapon (Move: D10->(-A?10), Attack: Cavendish) Reaction: N/A

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Marita was not in the mood for trading quips with Cavendish, so when he beckoned the ladies to come closer, she chose to wordlessly have the spiritual weapon do so it her stead. It flew through the fire and over the rats both living and dead to strike directly at the wererat's jugular. Unfortunately the blade went wide, missing entirely and ending up at his backside.

It was a frustrating turn of events, but the cleric was still free to do as she chose. There was no way that she was going to take her chances trying to directly assault the constable, nor was she too keen to see what foul magics he'd been given up close, so she assessed the battlefield to see if there was anything she could do before focusing on taking down the man of the hour. She noted that the cage closest to hurt looked just about ready to topple, and being able to get the townsfolk out of immediate danger would at least give Cavendish one less manner to harass them. Marita ran over to the cage and took a great swing...

Only for the cruelty of chance to make it so that her mace strike lined up just so that the head of the mace slipped in between the bars and the handle of the weapon made contact with the bars, sending an unpleasant vibration up through her arm but no actual damage done to the cage itself.

@Sigil Maybe V can do something

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: Concentration - Shield of Faith Location: F9->F10 Action: Attack X2 Bonus Action: Spell - Spiritual Weapon Reaction: N/A

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There are not words that can accurately describe the mix of emotions Marita felt when she saw the implementation of their makeshift plan which required a near miraculous display of willpower and strength from herself end up helping their enemies more than anything. Perhaps fortunately for the team's Dragonborn, they did not have the time to properly discuss what had just happened there. All she did was shoot him the most pointed, judgmental glare she had given any party member since taking this job. In his haste to go help the trapped civilians he probably missed the Disapproval of God, and would be better off for it.

However, the proceeding turn of events made the decision-making for the cleric much easier. Cavendish kindly did their work for them by disposing of the other abomination, so now the rest of them could focus on taking down the one in front of their faces. It was likely not long for this world what with being one fire, but there was nothing wrong with hastening that process. Marita swung with her mace and found it met with the same unsatisfying, spongey feeling. At this time she decided that it was worth it to exert her voice a bit more. She had been withholding her spellcasting to avoid drawing fire from potential crossbows, or in case they desperately needed to heal someone. However, the ability to dish out more damage quickly outweighed the potential drawbacks in her estimation. The next bit of decision-making was if she should direct her wrath at Cavendish and his rodents. She quickly determined it would be better to put her total focus on the massive, burning pile of flesh that could horrifically injure anyone near it if it got the chance.

"STRIKE."

She thrust her mace out towards the abomination, from the tip sprang forth the spectral dagger for the second time that day. She sought to skewer it, but missed and it only clipped the thing's midsection on its path to the other side. Lastly, the cleric took a sidestep, bodyblocking the creature from the shortest path to Kathryn, its current target as set out by Cavendish. She didn't particularly relish putting herself in the line of fire like this, but anything to impede the Constable's desires.

@Sigil V's up

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: Concentration - Shield of Faith Location: G7->F9 Action: Grapple Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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Well this situation had taken all sorts of turns that she couldn't have foreseen, and she was a bit at a loss of what exactly the best action would be at this point in time. Just hitting it with her mace might do nothing or it might send it into a frenzy, which she would rather not be standing next to it for. The previous plan of having them fight each other no longer seemed on the table since the berserker decided that it was now on the party's side and that Cavendish was the enemy. On top of that, none of the blessings she had available to her at the moment seemed advantageous enough for her to strain her voice further.

It was then that Baronfjord came up with his own plan that required the thing to be in front of him. She wasn't sure what exactly he was going to do, but it was likely better than anything she had. Now the problem was how to move the blasted thing when even V and an admittedly compromised Kathryn working together couldn't. She wasn't going to try using another Command, there wasn't a good way to make it go where it needed to with only a single word. The cosmos did not reveal to her any other options so finally in a bout of frustration she shouted.

"To Hell with it!" Without thinking on it any further, she took off and slammed herself shoulder first into the thing. Adrenaline kept her from having to thing about how gross it was and how if she made it out of this alive she'd need to thoroughly wash her clothes and hope the filth that covered it would come out. All she had to focus on was how heavy it was, like trying to push a brick wall if it could also push back again you. For a bit it seemed like she would fail as well, but then she felt her feet gain a bit of purchase. That little bit of progress gave her the spark of hope necessary to gather all the power in her legs and keep going. It was a protracted struggle and her legs were burning by the time she had moved them a relatively short distance, but that was all she needed to do. The thing was going right into the fire and there was nothing it could do about it.

@Arty Fox @Sigil BB makes his readied action or V goes? I'm not sure what the exact order of operations is here