Bad Guys:_____
One lich, a charmed umber hulk, three ogrillon, a bugbear, and a drider for the nonhumans. The two humans were both carrying weapons that glowed with a pale light of their own (one had a longsword and the other a bastard sword).
Ranma's group was attempting to get through the Underdark to the Promenade where they would be relatively safe from people who would see Sanri and Unri and react as if to drow slavers.
The lich was a fairly moderate mage of Calishite derivation who was working the slaver angle for the simplest motive - profit. Once he'd heard of a bunch of goody-two-shoes drow exiles, he'd thought he'd have a look. They'd sell pretty good, everyone knew good = dumb, and the profits would be enough that he could set up a nice tower someplace with plenty of books and works of art and figure out what else to do now that he was undead.
Two entirely different groups of people with entirely different motivations in the same place at the same time.
The Lich opened with a Ray Of Enfeeblement that struck the most dangerous looking person there. To the Lich, a former half-elven wizard of 14th level, that was one of the three drow - in particular the one that looked like she was drawing a wand. That was the guide.
To the drow and human party, the Umber Hulk was the more dangerous - especially to those that had never seen one before.
"Jupiter Thunder CRASH!" "Crescent BEAM!"
Sailor Mercury started scanning her opponents until the Bugbear saw a human doing something weird and immediately realized this was a spellcaster. (He was smarter than the average Bugbear.) A morningstar thrown into her head distracted Mercury from the whole concept of scanning for foes.
Unri saw the Bugbear throw one weapon and reach for another. She loved things for free - especially targets. Not being as delicate and genteel as her sister Sanri, she had grabbed a shortsword as soon as she'd seen one in the market, flipping the merchant a gold ring (nonmagical) as payment. The point was heavy, one edge was duller than the other, and it was shoddy work all around. At the moment she wanted to find the swordsmith and have them redo it the right way. She slashed at the Bugbear, opening a nice scalp wound before he realized that someone had just jumped at him.
Sanri had gotten up this morning and committed as many Comprehend Languages and Improved Comprehend Languages to memory as she could. Armed only with a dagger she'd swiped from the orcs who'd planned on eating them, she felt a little out of her league in this battle. The only spell she had in memory that would do any good - "Bless" - she started casting.
Ranma ducked under a sword swing, dodged a thrust and saw that short haired girl go down.
Once again the battle was clicked fully into "Take Seriously" mode except that something was different about this battle.
Ranma's MPD had begun unravelling under the influence of Sailor Moon's healing. As the decision was made to take the fight as a life-or-death struggle, Ranma ceased to use the martial arts. He became the Art.
The large slightly pudgy guy with the bastard sword was slightly off balance. Step within reach, elbow to nose, legsweep, grab sword in midair, thrust down. Sidestep longsword, twist away, kick elbow joint, pivot and twist, no armor on neck - valid target, serpent style punch, flip back.
Spider guy with spear thrusting from behind, stand on spear, backflip - kicking chin, dodge, weave, palm thrust, leap away as big ugly throws net. "MOKO TAKABISHA!".
"CRESCENT BEAM!" "THUNDER CRASH!" The umber hulk fell under the second barrage.
Unri continued to stab at the bugbear, more out of a need to distract the beast and do something than to actually inflict a lot of damage on it.
The Lich took a stream of magic missiles from the Guide's wand and lost the spell he was casting.
Sanri was intent on her spell and so never noticed the ogrillon behind her. She took a punch to the back of her head and joined Sailor Mercury on the floor.
Land on the back of the spider-guy, boot to the back of the head. Backflip. Catch the throwing knife. Insert into spider-guy's spine. Backflip, twist. Palmstrike big ugly in the nose.
The Lich decided things had gone far enough and it was time to unleash the big guns. He began casting a Monster Summoning IV to get reinforcements.
Unri continued to fight the bugbear.
"Crescent BEAM!" Venus announced as she attacked one of the remaining ogrillon.
Jupiter punched the last remaining ogrillon, ducking under the swing of its club.
Ranma kicked the undead guy in the head, a little surprised when the jawbone disconnected and went sliding out over the floor.
The Lich was even more surprised by this development and (silently) cursed the loss of his spell even as he went scrambling to get the removed body part.
Ranma used the break to take stock. Guide looked hurt but was still moving and trying to tag the undead guy with her wand again. Sailor Mercury and Sanri were on the floor. Unri...
Ranma flying kicked Unri's opponent in the head while he continued his assessment. The two human bad guys were on the floor. Drider was dead. Umber hulk blasted. Jupiter fighting one ogrillon. Other one was running off with a big hole in his chest. Venus joining Jupiter. One dead ogrillon on the floor. That left mister undead.
The Lich clicked its jaw back into place, wondering how the human had managed to kick at just the right power and angle to pull off such a thing.
The sudden silence gave a moment's warning and the Lich dropped below the kick. On seeing the remains of his little mercenary force scattered on the floor and what was obviously a high level monk about to go into melee with him, he opted to:
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(Posted Thu, 06 Nov 2003 13:26)
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