...they're using polearms in a mineshaft. This may or may not be good.
Alexander tries to duck under the head of the rightmost man's polearm, grabs his polearm and the one of the man beside him, and hyperventilates with an attempt to wrest their weapons away and disarm them both.
(2+2 vs. 6)You inhale deeply, and feel a tingling sensation in your head as everything seems to comes into sharper focus.
(1 vs. 6+2) With your now enhanced senses and focus, you feel the guard's strike coming as if it was moving at a snail's pace, and easily close the gap between you before ducking under the clumsy polearm. However, when you grab both shafts, you're still rather easily overpowered and pushed back by the combined might of the guards. Nevertheless, they are surprised by your strength, and give a little ground.
"Perfect. Just what I've been waiting for..."
Unsheathe both swords and go to town on whichever of the cultists isn't being targeted by Alexander.
(3, 4 vs. 2,1)You deftly leap past the guards and start hacking away at the robed cultists surrounding the shrine. They are chanting fervently, and continue to do so after you slash one,
cutting a shallow but broad wound across his side, and simply
lop off another's head.
The blood from the decapitated cultist sprays across the shrine, and the mine begins to rumble. The leader growls.
"Do you realize what you're doing?! No, no, of course you don't... this is a mess... you're going to awaken the Beast even sooner if you get blood all over like that."
Jericho charges past the two guards and swings his battle-axe at the head cultist's head.
Just after the leader speaks, you charge him,
(5) deftly weaving between the two imbalanced guards. The two cultists praying at the shrine make no move to intercept you as you charge the leader. However, the two cloaked men guarding the leader
do move against you, each drawing a pair of wickedly sharp undulating daggers. (1, 5, 4 vs. 4) They each strike at you. The one to the left misses, the momentum from his attack offbalancing him, but the one to your right slashes your arm,
tearing apart the bark. He follows this up with a kick, knocking you backwards. The leader laughs.
"Do not mistake my men for simple peasants, Arborian. Your weapon is slow and clumsy, making you easy prey for a skilled warrior."
Your hands tighten around the haft of your axe, and you feel energy coursing through it - it must have charged during the wagon ride here.
Throw the sickle at one of the cultists, then charge past the guys with the polearms and go behind the shrine and stab one of the cultist with my arming sword.
(1-1 vs. 4)You hurl the sickle at one of the cultists behind the shrine, specifically the one Azirkan has already wounded. However, the simple farming implement is dull, and only the tip is capable of doing real harm. It's the sickle's handle that makes contact with the cultist, and they don't even flinch, as if completely enthralled in their eldritch chanting. You charge forwards,
(3+1) and your enhanced speed allows you to just barely evade a strike from one of the guards. You leap at the cultist that you threw the sickle at,
(6) and
slit his throat with your arming sword before running him through. He continues chanting even as he collapses, his life energy quickly fading. He cups his hands under his own slit throat, and feebly splashes what blood he collects upon the shrine. The rumbling gets louder, and the leader panics.
"...Damn you, damn every last one of you!"
Zork looks at both guards, examining their armor, before turning to the man in the doublet, a mocking grin on his face. "Hey, ya robed weirdo, if you really do like displays of strength, why don't ya come fight yerself instead of hiding behind your lackeys ?" Zork inquires, pointing at the man in defiance.
He then laughs hoarsely, draws his club and exclaims, "Well, it doesn't matter. Fight or hide, I'll trample you to dust either way. Here I come !" before charging the two guards recklessly.
(6 vs. 4-1, 5-1)You charge the two guards, who are already disoriented from Alexander's assault, and with a single mighty swipe of your branch, send them both flying into the rough stone wall. Their flimsy polearms snap, and one of them is either knocked unconscious or killed, while the other is still alive but stunned. The leader, seeing the town guards fall, turns to his men.
"The Beast will be upon us any second! This is hopeless!"
Saying this, he sprints forth and grabs both the circlet fragment and the collar of the remaining cultist, and falls behind his men, dragging the cultist with him even as they still try to prostrate themselves and chant.
"I'll remember each and every one of you! You fought well, Silverblades - I didn't expect you to blitz through these simple peasants so quickly - but I will have my vengeance!"
He draws a cruelly hooked scimitar from his belt, and cuts the throat of the last cultist. He quickly sprinkles the blood in a crude circle around him, before drawing a pouch from his belt.
"Arrivederci. Have fun cleaning up the mess
you made."
He throws the pouch to the ground, and both he and his men vanish in a cloud of maroon smoke. The blood on the shrine begins to turn black and congeal in to a sort of amorphous blob. It spreads over the shrine, engulfing it. Azirkan and Robert back up as the blob expands into a disc-like membrane. Suddenly, without warning, a skinny and vaguely humanoid arm, ending in another smaller amorphous blob, shoots out from the membrance and plants itself on the ground. It's dark purple and covered in blisters. It's followed by a second, and a third, and then another two, making five altogether. Then, from out of the membrane emerges an octagonal black object, to which a long stem-like body is anchored. It is from this stem that the Beast's legs sprout.
(if my description is somewhat confusing, it looks somewhat like
this)
IT HAS BEEN LONG I HAVE MANIFESTED WHO IS IT THAT CALLS UPON ME