Athkathla II

[Craig]

"Reaching wood?"Asked Xandax
"Far to the north({OOC that satisfy you? Aegis})You would not know it"

[Aegis]

@Craig: N/M. With what you just posted, I think I can make some sense of it.

[Craig]

{OOC Next to the wood of black teeth

[Xandax]

{OOC: @Magus: Do you have somekind of plan with the encounter of this other adv. band in the copper coronet - because I choose to confront them *duh* - as you can see in my last post

@Aegis: it's okay by me - this "Ficfiction" is this right, because I can't connect to them - I'd think it might be fanfiction.net?? and what is the story called in there?
EDIT: N/M Aegis I found it
EDIT EDIT: Aegis - maybe you should add some spacing in the text - it is imposible to read/make sence of when cramped together like that
}

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: Xandax ]

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: Xandax ]

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: Xandax ]

[Aegis]

@Xandax: I'll try. I have alot of things that have to be done to it first. Like Edit! (Gasp!)

[Magus]

@all: We have a slight time problem, now. Xandax chose to confront the band (which is perfectly alright, I even suggested it), but the band MUST leave before Magus arrives (I have my reasons). So Magus will not arrive until the band leaves. I’ll edit as necessary once we get through the matter.

@Aegis: Cool. Good luck with the editing, though. BTW, I agree with Xandax. You need some sort of separation between individual posts. You know, like the 5 stars I use to divide my posts whenever I change perspective/location? Otherwise it doesn’t really make sense. Some credits might be nice, if no one minds their screenname being put down. (If that’s completely naive and foolish, please tell me...I’m new to this Internet security thing)

@craig: Your posts are kind of hard to understand. Is English a second language for you? I’m assuming “the man over there” you’re talking about is Magus. If that’s the case, remember that Magus will not appear until the adventuring band leaves.

@Xandax: Do I have a plan? Of course I do...sort of The adventuring band is not plot critical, if that’s what you mean. Just giving Virdel the hard time he deserves for foolishly letting his identity slip. Well, most of the people in it are not plot critical...

The site our story is posted on is http://www.fanfiction.net/sections/g...storyid=348154
*****

The party stops and turns around. The dwarf sizes up the armor-clad warrior.

“What ye be wanting, mommy’s boy? Speak quickly, or me axe be making a new home in yer head, it will,” the dwarf yells, itching the haft of his red-glowing axe. The others laugh derisively, though the mage remains silent. The assassin begins to creep around to Xandax’s side, unbeknownst to him or Faisal.
*****

The sun peeks over the horizon in Athkatla as a new day begins. As Virdel walks along the dark alleyways, he suddenly sees a flash from a nearby building. Battle cries and an inhuman shriek reach his ears. Curious, he slips over and peeks through a broken window. Inside the darkened building, a dozen hooded figures charge a hideous pit fiend. The thieves move quickly and efficiently, but they look to be no match for the frenzied demon. Before his eyes a thief is gutted on its razor sharp claws. A flick of its wrist sends the corpse crashing through a window right next to Virdel.
*****

@Aegis: You can finish up the battle if you want. No surprises here...at least for the battle itself. I’ll handle the aftermath.

@Xandax: Since this post is reasonably short, I don’t mind posting again today. I’ll check back periodically to see what’s going on. I took a nap so I should be up for a while more.

[Magus]

@Aegis: Just another suggestion for when you get around to editing the story. You know how we use UBB code to bolden and italicize some parts? Well, that didn't transfer over when you posted the story. Sometimes it's important for the words to be bolded or italicized. Like when Magus says:
Silence!
It doesn't really make without bold and italics, even if you are familiar with AD&D. Similarly, when Void talks the italics help you to *feel* his whispery mind speech.
Of course, editing's going to be a real pain, I know. I certainly wouldn't want to do it. So it's your choice if you want to take my advice, or anyone else's for that matter.

[Aegis]

@Magus: Okay, I have taken the advice, and added more of those five star things to seperate the locations/perspectives. I have also added the second "chapter", if you will, to the story. Also, if no one has the objections, I will add your screen names, so you all have do credit. Heh. Magus, is that Dwarf the one I'm thinking he is? I mean, glowing red axe... Sure it shouldn't be hmm... Pink?

*****

Virdel watched the man tossed across the room like a rag doll, and the others valiantly try to fight the creature off. It also notice how futile the task was. A Pit Fiend was no easy battle, and he easily guessed the outcome. The men, regardless of how many, stood little chance of defeating it. Virdel could not deny his instincts here. He did not follow the path of the common Drow, and could not turn his back on these men. He smirked, as he thought about what Ferchen had said about Melikki, and the Rangers.

He hesistated no longer, and drew both scimitars from their scabberds. He glanced quickly at the hilt of Justicar, and checked to make sure the obsidion stone was in place, for he felt he may need it in the common battle. He leapt into the wndowsell he had observed the battle from, and then to the gound in the building. He let out a battle cry, startling the Theives, but no doubt being welcomed by them. They wanted the help, Virdel knew this, and at this point, they did not care of the source.

As Virdel charged into the waiting Pit Fiend, he caressed his tumb of the obsidion stone, bringing to mind the mental image of the Earth. To his side, a pale green mist formed, shrouding everything to his right. A dark form began to materialize beside him, charging as he did. The large Earth Elemental charged headlong into the fight, recognizing the fiend as the obvious threat. The Elemental went right, and Virdel went left.

*****

As Virdel swung hard to the left, his focus on the Pit Fiend's massive arms, he let his scimitars loose a barrage of thrusts, cuts and jabs. His hands became a whur of motion, and the blades became no more then streaks of silvery light. The Pit Fiend Hollowed with rage as he felt the powerful scimitars sig into it's arm, and side. It sawted it's mighty hand down, towards Virdel's body, but was no match for lilthe Drow, as Virdel kicked back, and just out of reach of the unholy creatures attack. Virdel, recovering quickly from the attack, drove Lash Bearer down upon the Fiends fingers, attempting to dismember them from the hand, but to no avail. Virdel, too, had has underestimated the creatures speed, and his weapon only met the solid ground.

Virdel charged in again, this time leaping on the creatures forearm, and gripping on tightly with his legs. He began to slash madly at the arm of the beast, feeling the scmitars slowly hack away at the Fiends strong hide. The Fiend, now truly annoyed, swated at Virdel with his other hand, catching him right in the rib cage. Virdel let out a loud gasp, and sucked his gut in. His legs buckled, and he dropped to the ground, gasping for air to return to his lungs.

*****

The Earth Elemental fared slightly better than Virdel. The Massive chunk of rock swung and batted at the creature with all it's might, ignoring almost anything the creature turned back on it. With Virdel throughly distracting the creature on the other side, the elemental swung it's rocky fist into the Pit Fiends rib cage. The powerful was enough to strike through, and the sounds of bone cracking could be heard under the skin. The Elemental repeated the attack twice more before backing up, and moving to a new approach. When The Pit Fiend saw Virdel dive onto it's arm, it had raised it's right hand to swat at it. The first time, the Elemental caught it, and attempted to crush it's wrist. It had broken free with a twist of his arm, and with the strength possed by the Fiend, it had removed one of the Elementals mighty arms in the process, then went bck, and swated Virdel off it. The Elemental continued it's attack regardless, charging headlong into the melee again, raising it's lone fist to jaw level of the beast. With one mighty swing, the Elemental tore the jaw of the beast off, sending a wave of putrid smelling blood across the floor, with the bone and jaw alongside.

*****

The Theives, having backed off to watch the impressive Drow work, had seen the him get hit by the beast. They had also seen the Elemental remove it's jaw, distracting it long enough for of the braver men to go and retrieve Virdel from the fate the Fiend had in store. The Valiant fight had also raised their spirits, and their courage, and they again attacked the weakend Fiend. A wave of blade and arrow could be seen striking the Fiend, which could no longer withstand the attack, and after a few more minutes of fighting, the Pit Fiend gave out one last sigh, and collapsed to the ground, dead.

By now, Virdel had regained his breath. He stood, albeit rather shakily, and retreived his fallen weapons. He also commanded the Elemental to return to the earth. He looked around at the carnage wreaked by the monster. Five of the twelve theives had been slain, and three more were wounded. Virdel now had a nasty bruise, and possibly a broken rib to add to his growing list of injuries from the past two days. He approached, who he assumed, to be the leader of this group of Theives.

"Where did this Fiend come from" Virdel questioned, still breathing heavily. He placed his swords away, and straightend up, and looked directly at the man...

@Magus: At leave it their for you, because something tells me you had an alterior motive for that Fiend.

[Xandax]

“What ye be wanting, mommy’s boy? Speak quickly, or me axe be making a new home in yer head, it will” the dwarf called out.
Xandax concentrated on finding a useful strategy.

”I don’t want to fight you, Sir” Xandax said carmly while taking his sword in his left hand and sneaking the dagger previously owned by the dead guard in the doorway down into his right hand.
“I just would like to know – what, if anything, you know about this supposed Drow and what he might be doing in the city and what is your interest in him.”
“I got to bide time, they need to get restless” Xandax thought. “The mage is the threat, he got to go down first – and quickly”

{OOC: well it seems there is also timing problems with Thryn and his return to Copper Coronet, it seems he has to return after the "showdown" with this adv.band }

[ 07-13-2001: Message edited by: Xandax ]

[Magus]

@Aegis: Heh heh, just met up with Drizzt’s party a couple of hours ago. Let’s just say they’ve been...disposed of Got some great mithril plate from you know who. But no, the dwarf isn’t Bruenor. You might have noticed he’s a bit too bloodthirsty to be Bruenor. And he travels with a cleric of Cyric, which the good old Bruenor would never do.
*****

The thief leader, grateful for the assistance, decides to indulge the stranger, drow though he be. “We came here to hit our target, one of those arrogant Cowled Bastards. But seems like he was waiting for us. Soon as we breached the place, he summons up that there Pit Fiend. He doesn’t even stick around to watch, just teleports off, laughing all the way. Must have though we’s as good as dead, and we surely were. Must not have counted on you coming along. Who are you, drow, to be helping us strangers?”

“That’s none of your concern. Just be grateful for your life this day. Not many face a dreaded pit fiend and live to tell the tale.”

“As you say, stranger. Off we are then. Come my boys, and let us leave this tomb. Don’t forget your comrades weapons and armor, for the Bloodscalp doesn’t take kindly to waste.” The thieves collect the arms of their fallen, then start to the door.
*****

The Cowled Wizard watched as the drow turned the tide of the battle, slaying the gated pit fiend. The Shadow Thieves had thought he teleported away, but actually he used a Shadow Door spell to slip aside and observe his handiwork.

Damn that drow, he thought. He would pay dearly for crossing the Cowled Wizards...but first, he had a task to complete...
*****

A fireball comes out of nowhere, blasting right into the middle of the astonished thieves. The searing heat devours flesh and armor both. Virdel manages to roll away mostly unscathed, being farther away. He spots a blurred form just before it teleports away, for real this time. Rubbing his singed skin, he knows he’s made some powerful enemies this day.
*****

[Magus]

@Xandax: Hmm...unexpected reaction. This should be interesting... If you’re going to fight them, we’ll have to do it in stages. All is not what is seems...but then again, is it ever?
*****

The dwarf takes no notice of the knife slipping into Xandax’s hand. “All I be knowin is that darkling’s going to be a dead darkling, and we’ll be getting a hefty reward to boot. Any fool knows there always be a bounty for the head of his kind. Just stay out of our way and maybe we won’t be havin to kill ye, aye?” The dwarf smiles at this, showing a set of disgusting green teeth.

But the alert assassin sees the move. He slips around behind the bar, motioning to his friends that there’s going to be trouble. Then he lunges at Xandax’s back with a cruel, curved knife.
*****

@Xandax: A bit overreacting, perhaps, but keep in mind this group was already hungry for blood. The assassin circling around was just standard precaution for him. You could have avoided the fight by simply keeping your weapons sheathed.

@all: It’s getting late now. No more posts for me today. I’ll check the board first thing tomorrow, seeing that a full-fledged battle is about to commence.

[Magus]

Before I leave...

@craig: At this point Thryn is still outside seeing if he can spot Virdel. Thryn CANNOT join the battle inside the Copper Coronet for a little while. Once some time has passed, and the battle has progressed a bit, then Thryn may join the fight.

[Xandax]

Noticing the shadow of the assassin caused by the lighting inside the Coronet and the light of his amulet Xandax reacts. Xandax feels the knife hit his full plate but does due to his reaction it does not penetrate the flesh.

"To the death" Xandax calls out.
Xandax spins around, slashing his shield, which is firmly mounted on Xandax left arm, towards the assassin’s head and in the same motion throws the knife towards the throat of the mage. Xandax follows his thrust towards the assassin though with his sword, still in the left hand.

His amulet shines brighter than ever before.

{OOC:

You could have avoided the fight by simply keeping your weapons sheathed.

I had counted on this happening - that's why I took the dagger from the body}

[ 07-13-2001: Message edited by: Xandax ]

[CM]

OOC - i am making the band a group of 5 everybody fine with that?

Stars and stones thinks faisal, i have no weapon on me and Xandax is alone against this bunch.
Xandax can take care of the dwarf but i need to help in some way.

Grabing a chair, faisal smashes it on the back of one of the men and dashes off back to his room looking for his weapons.
The man just hits the floor hard but is up just as quickly, signalling to one of the others to follow and takes off after faisal.

Taking the steps 3 at a time faisal enters his room on the second floor and quickly grabs the sword and sheild and pivots on his foot to leave the room.
However the men where much faster than faisal thought as one was standing the in the door way and the other just out side.

Faisal without think slash's at the man in front forcing him out of the room.

*My survival depends on keeping them out of the room and making sure that i can take the on one on one.* thinks Faisal

"Kid ye will pay for attacking me, pay wit' yer blood".
" I don't want a fight, can't we just forget it every happened" asks faisal
"We will forget about it after we bury you" says the other.
With that the one hit with the chair attempts to enter the room.
Dual weilding a mace and short sword, the man slashs with is sword low and brings his mace up high, thinking that faisal will use his shield to block the sword leaving him low and unbalanced position. Then he could bring a crushing blow to the back of faisal's face with is mace.

Faisal saw this and quickly side stepped the sword, brought up his shield to meet the mace, and slashed with is sword through the exposed chest of the brigand.

*Pathetic thinks faisal, that was such a basic form of fighting.
Well atleast the mandatory military training in Calim****e paid off finally.*

The other one seeing the death of his comrade decides to not take a chance and runs off.

Full of youthful foolishness and inexperience Faisal follows him out the door and around the corner, where the man is waiting for him.

*stupid, stupid, stupid!* flash rapidily in faisals mind.

However the man does not attack.
He waits for Faisal to regain his wits and then says:
"I don't tend to fight you at a disadvantage, if we fight we fight prepared for it"

*this guy has some honor thinks faisal*

"How about forgetting the whole thing?"

"Not after you killed my friend, get ready to defend your...."

He didn't finish his sentence as 2 drucken men decide to jump him.
And then 2 others join in the fight saying 2 on 1 isn't fair!

*Well that takes care of him* thinks faisal.

A thought pops into Faisal's mind, * So close to death twice in one day, i better start thinking about which god i should pay homage to.*

Faisal smiling at his good fortune speeds down to see what Xandax is up too.

[Magus]

@Fas: Errr...I listed the entire group earlier. Dwarven fighter, human swashbuckler, assassin, cleric of Cyric, mysterious mage. We’ll say that you smashed the assassin over the head with chair, and that he was the one with the mace and short sword that you killed. Too bad it wouldn’t have been that easy. But what’s done is done. The second guy attacked by the drunks was the human swashbuckler.

@Xandax: quote: “I had counted on this happening - that's why I took the dagger from the body.” That’s fine and great, but a fight wouldn’t have began in the first place if you had kept your weapons sheathed!
*****

The assassin deftly sidesteps the shield blow, then brings up his knife to parry the sword thrust. He turns the attack aside, but the blow knocks the dagger out of his hand. In a flash, he pulls out two more weapons, a short sword and a mace .

Meanwhile, Xandax’s borrowed dagger flies towards the mage’s throat. Inches away it hits an unseen barrier, and falls harmlessly to his feet. A look of annoyance crosses his shadow-covered face, and he lets loose a finger of death at the presumptuous beserker. Xandax winces in pain as he fights off the deadly spell, momentarily vulnerable.

Luckily for him, Faisal chooses that moment to smash the assassin over the head with a chair, sending him sprawling. The assassin recovers quickly, and nodding to the swashbuckler, they race up the stairs after the retreating fighter.

Yells of fear ring through the tavern as the cleric of Cyric brings forth a fearsome skeleton warrior a few feet in front of Xandax. But Xandax is given no time to attack it before it rises, as the dwarven fighter is already on top of him. He swings his axe in a mighty down-left arc intended to split Xandax from shoulder to gut.
*****

@Faisal: You’re out the fight for the time being, because running up the stairs and fighting off those two guys would’ve taken some time.

@Xandax: Given some time, you could probably overpower the dwarf and cleric. How you handle the mage should be interesting, though...

@craig: You can join in the combat now, if your character chooses.