Iron Kingdoms: Tides of War

[Comrade Tortoise]

Corey regained his balance, thrust his hand out and spoke a single word. His orther hand clutched a rapidly dissolving piece of pork fat. Grease erupted from his hands and coated the floor between him and the charging thrawls in a slippery mess.

[LadyTevar]

"Corey, if that actually works, I'll kiss you," Teghe snorted, once again powering up the rune bullet, now inside the pistol. Magic whispered out of the lithe gunmage, wrapping itself around and inside the gilded shot before the weapon was aimed at the more wounded of the thralls. "Go down and stay down..," Teghe whispered as he pulled the trigger.

[Charon]

Akina cut off a scream as the Thrall damn near crushed her wrists. Glaring at it through the eye slit the Umbrean woman snarled as she twisted her arms, with any luck it would get her arms into a better position to do what she needed to do next. She shoved with all her weakened might then, and kept pushing, hoping to slam the Bane Thrall into it's master.

[Cynical Cat]

Akina pushed the bane thrall back, into the line of fire between the iron lich and the doorway. The thrall was damn strong, but not quite the equal of the Umbrean.

Meanwhile Corey go his spell off. Both charging bane thralls abruptly lost their balance and fell. Teghe was ready. He lowered his pistol and fired. There was an azure flash as the arcane bullet blasted through the damaged breastplate and blew apart the wounded bane thrall's scorched flesh. It ceased to move.

The other regained its feet quickly, but its advance was slowed its desire to avoid slipping. Still, the sword it wielded had more than a little reach. It would be upon the adventurers in moments.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Corey backed away carefully (so as not to run into anyone) from the Bane Thrall that was moving slowly toward him, withdrawing and extending his Collapsible staff as he did so. He had one chance to avoid Melee combat

He shit his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them they glowed with an other-worldly light as his mind plunged into its recesses to withdraw the pattern of his most powerful spell left remaining. He spoke several arcane syllables and traced a path from himself to the bane Thrall in front of him, to the unwounded Starlock thrall, then raised his staff with a final word to close the evocation.

Right in front of him pillars of white hot magical fire sprang into being and cascaded along the path he designated.

[rhoenix]

Having finished reloading with another rune bullet, Zedrin rolled sideways to aim inside the doorway while sitting in a crouch, and focused another cantrip-level spell into this bullet. Once he had a clear shot, he aimed for the Bane Thrall cautiously walking on the now-greased floor, and fired at its head.

[Cynical Cat]

The cascade of blue flames rolled over the bane thrall, snaked its way through the room, and washed over the skarlock thrall and the table it was hiding behind. The table was blackened and burnt as were both thralls, but the undead survived the magical blast, albeit with substantial damage. Armour and flesh were blackened and charred. Ashen black skin sloughed off the skarlock thrall, exposing burnt muscles. It raised its hand and sent three blue-white darts through the doorway.

[Cynical Cat]

Zarin's bullet struck the wounded bane thrall in the chest. It blew through the damaged breastplate and cratered the undead's chest. It fell, smoke rising from its body. Blue-white bolts flashed through the doorway toward towards the mages as one of the skarlock's unleashed its spell. The other skarlock's hand was engulfed in blue flames as it reached towards the fell caller.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Coreys hands worked in a flash as he tried desperately to erect a shield spell before the Magic Missiles hit.

[LadyTevar]

Magic missiles Teghe could survive, so he ignored them and focused on charging the last of his prepared rune bullets. After this, it was straight powershot and maybe two spells, so Teghe knew he had to make it count.

The gunmage took aim at the wounded skarlock thrall about to get friendly with their trollkin buddy. Teghe wasn't sure what spell the thrall had going, but he didn't want to let the Fellcaller find out the hard way. "Down boy...," Teghe muttered as he fired.

[Cynical Cat]

Corey had no chance of casting faster than an onrushing energy bolt closing a short distance. One bolt cliped his left arm, opening a shallow wound and causing agonizing surface burns. Another blew open a hole in his lower right side. Partial cauterization minimized bleeding, but the damage was far from trivial.

Teghe was in worse shape. He had foolishly stood still, allowing the bolt to slam into his chest and pierce his left lung. Bloody froth foamed on his lips as the gunmage staggered back.

[Charon]

Akina didn't bother stopping her charge once she missed the Iron Lich, trying instead to slam him into a wall, hoping to weaken the Thrall's grasp on her arms.

[SirNitram]

Malkamar had been silent for a moment, setting up his shot away from the main party. Some paladins lead from the front, but the prospect of sniping an undead necromancer held in the world by his own sick will, twisted magics, and iron-plated meckanikal contrivances was one that demanded the utter attention of the gunner. Besides, it might be necessary to get a second shot off.

With the rifle lined up as best as possible, the sight was taken. One of the joints in the torso was slightly less armoured to facilicate the movement of arms in complex arcane gestures. That would have to do.

There was a moment when Malkamar didn't even breath, his prayer to Morrow silent and internal. Then he pulled the trigger, speeding the round on it's way.

[Cynical Cat]

There was a white flash as Malkamar's bullet impacted on the iron lich's left shoulder. Steam and oil gushed from the rent in the undead's armour as the nightmarish Cryxian abomination turned towards the paladin with murder in its eyesockets. A thin stream of dark acid shot towards Malkamar.

[Bloody Good]

Ardal wanted this to be over. It was getting close to Happy Hour.

"Bugger this!" Bulling his way past and over the staggered thrall in front of him, he made a rush for the Lich. He let loose a blast of Hot Lead Death as he closed, dropped his scattergun, and freed the mallet. He roared a primal scream of anger and hate as he charged. His blood-red quills standing on end, he would have looked like an angry porcupine in any other circumstance. Swinging a massive hammer at the head of an unholy abonination, blood oozing down his arms from ugly wounds exposed by gaps blasted through twisted, torn armor, he looked anything but amusing. He looked more like the reason people are afraid of trolls and their kin.

[Cynical Cat]

The blast from the scattergun rained shrapnel upon the iron lich, which would have been devastating if it had been made of flesh instead of steel. Pieces of metal bounced of it and ricocheted around the room. The trollkin's beserk charge caught it momentarily flat footed and it staggered when the hammer struck it. Then it lashed back with a fist that could crush skulls.

Malkamar, on the other hand, was the recipient of the wrath of the skarlock that Ardal had ceased to engage. The undead pointed and three blue-white energy bolts streaked from its hand towards the paladin.

[LadyTevar]

Teghe was in worse shape. He had foolishly stood still, allowing the bolt to slam into his chest and pierce his left lung. Bloody froth foamed on his lips as the gunmage staggered back.

There are moments when you realize just how stupid you were. Teghe was having one of them right now. Putting his back against the wall, he tried again to lift his pistol and fire the charged bullet at the Skarlock thrall, now turned to face the Paladin.

"You're goin' with me," Teghe whispered through bloody lips, pulling the trigger.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Corey fell to one knee, choking back pain and clutching at his side with his injured left arm and supporting his body with his right The arm was nasty, but his brain could only deal with pain from so many places. He was going into shock, his heart was racing, his limbs felt weak, his breathing fast and shallow. But his mind was strong. With a push of will he lifted the encroaching veil of unconsciousness and lifted his right hand. These undead monsters needed to be put down. He hissed out words in the language of magic and four of the same glowing blue orbs shot from his own fingers. Two of them lashed out at the burned Starlock thrall, and the other two streaked toward the one that was plying its craft against malkamar.

With his hand, Corey reached down and grabbed his collapsible staff from its place on his belt and extended it, and started using it to pull his wounded body off the floor. He was starting to run low on spells, he had nothing defensive left other than a shadow shield spell, and had no spells more powerful than the second circle. Other than his Lighting Bolt, which he was keeping in reserve.

[rhoenix]

Seeing the vicious firefight of magic occurring, and Corey falling, Zedrin didn't bother firing his next rune bullet yet. Instead, without bothering to aim, he raised his rifle, and channeled a spell through it. Four bluish-white bolts flew unerringly from the barrel, following the same targets Corey had chosen - two striking the burnt Starlock Thrall, the other two striking the Thrall menacing the Paladin Malkamar.

[Bloody Good]

The incoming fist may have packed battering-ram force, but liches of any kind tend to focus more on how to shatter reality and less on the finer points of brawling. Still, a target as big as Ardal is easy to hit, and that same mass makes it hard to dodge effectively. The trollkin was clipped on the shoulder instead of having his lungs knocked out through his back. A wounded shoulder. Sweet Dhunia, that hurt.

A veteran of the epic bouts of brutality and sloppily drunken boxing known as trollkin barfights, Ardal knew a few tricks. Planting one hobnailed boot firmly on the lich's foot, he shoved, mallet-head first, keeping the lich's foot trapped as best he could to prevent him/it from just taking a step back and regaining his/its balance.

[Cynical Cat]

The skarlock thralls ducked behind the ruined tables as a fusillade of bullets and sorcery were unleased against them. Zedrin discovered that his spell blasts were only "quite accurate" as opposed to "unerring", but Corey's spell and Teghe's bullet more than made up for the two bolts that missed. Both skarlock's fell, their torso's blasted open by magic.

Ardal wasn't so fortunate. The iron lich picked up the trollkin with his left hand and through him across the room where he impacted on the wall with a loud thud.

[SirNitram]

Malkamar saw the spray coming, heard the telltale sound of magical darts, and reacted. A mixture of his own speed and his divine patron's blessing helped, as he hit the ground and rolled away, his body tucked to protect the flammable powder and delicate firearm.

A comparatively small amount of the acid splashed him, but cloak sizzled and corroded away where it touched, leaving his back bare and in intense pain from the splatter. The darts were lethally accurate, lashing his arms and back and opening long but mercifully shallow wounds. The paladin ached, but kept moving, trying to find cover for his next shot.

[Hotfoot]

Rogan spat a curse as the drops of acid hit his coat. Another patch would be in order, it would seem. He ducked and weaved through the combat, using stealth and speed to his advantage to try and get behind the lich, his wrench firmly in hand. As much as he wanted to leap in and help the others, bringing down the mechanikal monstrosity is his first priority.

What's good for the gobbo... he thought as he reached into his potion belt. He hated using such an expensive potion, but this fight was going poorly thus far. Iron cages were well and good, but Dragon's Bile should eat it all. He threw the vial at as vulnerable a section of the new cages covering the lantern-like cages, hoping it would strike true. Once thrown, he looked for the nearest source of cover he could find, wanting to not be seen if the lich looked for the source of the strike.

[Cynical Cat]

The iron lich didn't pay any attention to the Dragon's Bile that splattered across its lower torso and the steel box covering its soul cages. It had far more serious concerns than the splattering of a a little liquid. These men needed to die. Now.

The iron lich drew upon the energy of a soul cage and shouted a spell. Solid tentacles, covered in knife like blades, sprouted from the shadows on the wall and writhed towards the adventurers. "You will die," it rasped in Cygnaran. "And your souls will never see UrCaen."

As he spoke the Umbrean grappled with her bane thrall foe and the Dragon's Bile hissed and ate away at the steel box and part of the lich's armour.

[Bloody Good]

As Ardal regained his footing, the first thing he saw was the tiny wisp of smoke rising from the lich. Forcing himself not to look at the bubbling metal, in case the lich followed his gaze, he drew his swords. Dhunia knew where the hell his hammer landed. A shame, too, 'cause that bell-noise it made against the lich's head probably meant that the Tin Man didn't like it.

"Ain't scared a' no Dhunia-damn shadows!" Stepping away from the wall that he had probably cracked a rib against, he launched into another song, this one a trollkin battle march. The deep, resonating notes hummed through the entire building, the magic in his voice lending aid to the adventurers much the way a human bard would, though with much greater volume and about three octaves lower.