Devil's Due
6th of Rova 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
The sensible thing to do, the
sane thing to do, is to bow your head to the monster and flee, hope that it will glut its murder-lust upon its quarry, and forget anything as lowly as you ever crossed its path. Something clinks in your pack, a reminder of the weapons within—each one would have cost all the coin you had scrounged up when you left the tribe—as you press to the surface of your mind squirming sweet words of flattery:
"Great Lord, know that we did not mean to interrupt your hunt, we but saw flame in the midst of such a great tumult of water and air and were much amazed."
Even as the thing's contempt simmers and grows, all trace of surprise from its mind long since gone, you look left and right at your companions, iruxi, goblin and burnlander mage. You trust them and they trust you, they know you for a liar and a skilled one at that, and yet they know also your lies are for foes.
A flip of the hand, a twist of two fingers, it might have been taken for a nervous twitch and yet its meaning is clear and practiced between the four of you: 'Kill on the mark.'
Gorok shuffles closer to Warty, Mina takes a deep breath, Cob licks his lips over uneven teeth
"Please, please take this generous gift..." you 'fumble' with the strings of your pack.
Akorian Bluff: 1d20+14 = 30 vs Salikotal Sense Motive: 1d20+16 = 18 -> Salikotal is Flat Footed (Does not get Dex or Dodge Bonuses; Cannot take Immediate Actions)
Salikotal Will Save vs Stun Vial = 1d20+7 = 25 (Success)
The next thing the devil sees is the flash blazing blue light, like one of the thunderbolts had struck down onto its horned head. Yet when the light clears the hate in those burning eyes still shines too clear, but you aren't the only one with a gift for the fiend. An almighty harking sound comes from Warty and a glob of slurk slime pins it to the wood of the tree, infernal grace reduced to some grotesque flapping flayed thing in an instant.
Warty Ranged Touch Attack: 1d20+3 = 17 (Success VS Flat Footed Touch AC) -> Salikotal Entangled (Stuck in place, -2 Attack Rolls and -4 Dexterity)
As Mina blows a corona of gold upon the fiend, alas still not managing to blind the thing, Gorok charges, clawed feet biting into the wet earth and charred roots, axe swinging in a deadly arc to take advantage of the moment of shock. Not lightly to devils die to the touch of common steel, that all who dare to listen to tales of such things know. But strength and skill and luck still count, that every hunter knows too. The axe bites deep and burning blood mixes with the rain as the hounds rage.
Salikotal Will Save vs Glitterdust = 1d20+7 = 24 (Success)
Salikotal takes 10 Damage -> Now at 28/76 HP
One of the beasts manages to bite at Cob's heel as the goblin too scarpers away to deal with the more dangerous foe first. The looted dagger that you had taken from the dead-thing whose soul still hangs around your neck parts bloodied devil's hide like parchments, snaps weakened ribs like kindling as the goblin burrows into into his vitals on the weakened left side.
Cob now at 27/34 HP
Salikotal takes 20 Damage -> Now at 8/76 HP -> Bane Dagger Revealed as Devil Bane
Initiative: Akorian, Mina, Salikotal,
Cob,
Gorok
Vaguely you are aware of the fact that the hound Gorok had tangled with is even worse off than it had been as Iolda's magic peppers its hide, but your eyes are on the fight, on Gorok. You run forward, reach for the tip of his tail, and whisper a spell of
warding against wicked things in the old tongue by which you were named. Hope it's enough...
Hellhound Two takes 7 Damage -> Now at 5/30
You only catch a glimpse of Mina through the rain, running around the other side of the tree, her face alight with purpose. She turns her head up to look the thing in the fiend's eyes and sings a
single note, dreadfully pure, like a dagger of glass through the cacophony of the storm. The fiend goes slack in the tangle of slime, the sudden shifting in its weight making it fall from the tree like some monstrous scab.
Caster Level Check Mina: 1d20 +4 = 23 (Success) -> Salikotal Fortitude Save vs Ear Piercing Scream: 1d20+9 = 10 (Critical Failure) ->Damage: 2d6 = 9
Salikotal takes 9 Damage -> Salikotal Slain
How do you deal with the Hellhounds?
[] The things are said to be a lot smarter than ordinary beasts, maybe you can get one of them to surrender and though the artifice of the band explain what is going on
[] Continue the fight
-[] Kill them all
-[] Try to take one alive
[] Write in
OOC: I know that a SR Yes evocation is a terrible thing for a CL 4 witch designed around crowd control and SoDs to use on a much higher level adversary, but at that point the devil was slimed and surrounded so Mina judged that more debuffs were not as needed as more damage. Out of character, as soon as it was the devil's turn it would have teleported out of there. Vengeance Devils are assassins, not the kind to stand and fight at the best of times. 'A giggling goblin with a bane dagger in their innards while covered in slurk slime' is not the best of times. 
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