Act III: the Face of Evil

[Ikoma]

[Sorry about this guys.  I had a nice, long detailed combat post.  GG ate it.  So I re-wrote it as a shorter, quicker version.  GG ate it.  Now you are getting the cliff notes version.]

Yemam moves closer (but the water slows him enough he can't get all the way to where he wanted).  Hassid hits but finds that the water provides some protection to the eels.  Marius has luck with his bolts.  Ioan casts bless.  The hag makes her presences known.  Yemam took -3 STR damage from her hideousness.  Ioan, Adam & Abrud must get me a FORT save with their next post or I'll assume they failed it.  The blood eels attack Hassid, Adam & Marius.  All three miss.

[Ikoma]

Yemam tries to free himself of the water.  The hit he suffered sapped him of his strength and he did not want to get completely involved just yet.  The scout moves back and reassesses the fight.

Hassid does what he can to sweep his blade through the water, trying to cut the water as he would a person, in such a way that the blade would not get wet. It was absurd a thought, but in the heat of battle, Hassid had performed things far more absurd than that.  The first strike is true but the second and third are slowed enough that the eel slips free.  Hassid is certain if he can get more solid blow in, he can finish this eel.  Which only leaves two others.

The Eels snap at Marius, but his magical forcefield keeps them from getting through.  Marius thought he was prepared, but the water limits what he can do.  Surrounded by eels, and away from shore, the always cocky and confident spellsword shows very slight signs of concern.  He looks around, and sees the Hag and recoils from her hideousness, but adrenaline helps him keep his cool, his friend Yemam does not seem to be as successful.  Marius steps up to Yemam and reaches out hoping his magic can give him some future protection - Protection from Evil.

Ioan struggles to keep his gorge down at the sight of the Swamp Hag. He again moves towards the shore, bringing his hammer down hard on the eel facing Marius. The splashing obscures the action, but it feels like a solid hit.

Ioan feels a momentary surge of success but then his gaze his drawn... irresistibly... toward the hag.  She stares at him, one eye shut tight, the other blood-red orb is focused with laser-like intensity on the cleric.  [FORT save from Ioan - another one, you already beat the Horrific Appearance one]

The eels seems to take no thought to who they attack.  The eel allows Marius to step away and chooses to attack Ioan, who is now closest.  Adam and Hassid both get another attack.  And this time, all three eels hit.  [Adam -19 hp; Hassid -19 hp; Ioan -20 hp]  With their strange flat faces, the needle-like teeth sink into exposed flesh, arms and legs.  The eels are attached.  The three affected members of the party can feel the blood drain begin.... it's not pleasant.

Abrud and Adam both stagger under the horrific appearance of the hag.  Abrud, in particular, can barely stand.  [Abrud -9 STR (1 STR!); Adam -11 STR (3 STR!)]

[Ikoma]

Yemam looked around at the battle scene and realized that others were far more worse than he.  Looking at Adam and Abrud, Yemam decided to go to Adam's rescue.  The scout drew his blade and moved over to the eel.  "Friend, just hold on.  We will get this off you soon enough."  The blade cut into the eel a bit, but the beast ignores the scout.

Hassid feels the needles penetrate into his leg, and the sensation was not a pleasant one.  With a will that pushes past the pain Hassid again strikes at the horrid creature.  The blade slices cleanly through the beast just behind its head... which stays attached.  It's going to take some time to remove the eel as it's teeth are stuck deep into his leg.  But it isn't sucking anymore.

The tide was turning against the group, Abrud and Adam looked as they could barely move.  Hassid moved closer and Marius took the opportunity to offer some magical protection - Protection from Evil - "nice to see you my friend."  Marius then shifted into a defensive stance, hoping to brush off any invading interlopers.

Ioan can feel his blood running cold.  This is not an expression.  The blood is his veins begins to crystallize.  [WILL save for Ioan.  This is the big one!]

Adam feels the blood drain as well.  Being sucked straight out of the wound on his side.  He is getting weaker by the second.  [-3 CON; -27 hp]  This combined with the affect of the hag's hideous appearance leaves him unable to stand.  He falls back, sinking under the water.  Ioan also feels the eel sucking his life force away.  Luckily for the cleric, the eel must have hit more armor than the one attacking Adam did.  [-1 CON; -9 hp]

[Ikoma]

"NOOOO!"  The scout yells out in frustration over seeing his friend drop into the water.  Yemam grips his blade tightly and swings at the eel, but his anger gets the best of him and the swing is a little too wild.  He scrapes the eel, drawing blood but nothing significant.  Certainly not enough to make the beast even think about letting its meal go.

Hassid moves as fluid as he can with an eel clamped onto his leg toward Ioan.  Splashing through the swamp Hassid brings his blade down upon the creature clamped onto Ioan.

Marius watched Adam drop under the water "NO!" ... he was about to lose another friend, the archer screamed in terror.
Fire magic and water don't mix well Marius thought for a second, and his force arrows just weren't cutting it with the party split from shore.  Adam was in trouble and Marius needed to stay out of Hassid's and Yemam's way.  The Hag needed to be taught a lesson.  Marius drew an arrow and lined his shot and waited, as the Hag moved into view the archer launched an arrow and followed with a second.  The arrows sailed through the air in perfect unison before the first pierced the Hags neck, seconds later the second planted within inches of the first.  The old woman screams a ghastly piercing wail as a green, thick blood flows from the wounds.

"Is that it? You're UGLY! I see uglier than you in mirrors!"

Ioan invokes Spiritual Weapon, and a hammer appears between Ioan and the Hag. It swings hard... and finishes the job Marius' arrows started.  The keening sound ceases abruptly under the sound of crushing bone.  She falls to he ground... silent and still.

But the eels do not care at all.  The two elves still alive continue to feed.  Adam takes the worst.  Perhaps because he is completely submerged.  But Ioan cannot a lot of this.  The eels begin to swell with the volume of blood they are draining from their victims.  [Adam: -4 CON (-7 total), -36 hp (-63 total); Ioan: -1 CON (-1 total), -9 hp (-18 total)]

[Ikoma]

Yemam continues to attack the eel sucking the life out of Adam but the wriggly eel manages to slips and twist, avoided any damage from the enchanted blade.

Hassid chases after Ioan and takes another slice at the creature.  Another deep bite that nearly severs the beast in two.  But the eel ignores its own deep wounds in favor of the bliss of sucking Ioan's blood.  Another stroke of almost any severity will end this bloodsucker's life.

Marius watches the hag fall, slightly annoyed that his arrows weren't the ones to finish her, but glad that she falls remembering that they are all in this together.  Marius puts his bow away and draws his longsword moving towards Adam.

Ignoring the eel attached to him, Ioan wades to Adam and invokes Cure Serious Wounds.  The holy warriors slack face looks green but perhaps it is just the water.

The pair of eels continue to drain the life out of Adam and Ioan.  [Adam: -2 CON (-9 total), -18 hp (-63 total); Ioan: -1 CON (-3 total), -9 hp (-27 total)]

[Ikoma]

Yemam attempts to swing at the eel again, but the extra weight of the every time the scout attacks causes him to lose balance.

Still trudging after Ioan's Eel Hassid attacks the confounded creature, finishing it this time.

Marius stands in a good tactical position, he bends his knees slightly to better keep balance in the water and stabs at Adams eel turning his wrist as the blade penetrates, he withdraws the blade, and quickly turns and spins keeping the blade close as it comes up in a half circle up, a smirk on the spellswords face as the blade slices at the eel, "Hang on buddy we're coming!"

Ioan's spirit-hammer appears at Adam's side and smites the eel attached to the Paladin. It swings with a fury Ioan has never before been able to muster, but Ioan pays it no mind as he mumbles the words of a different prayer. Woozy from blood loss, Ioan attempts to invoke Restoration on Adam. Adam's eyes snap open as Ioan lays his hands on the paladin.  But the eel is still sucking, draining blood from Adam.  [Adam: -4 CON (-4 total), -36 hp (-36 total)]

[Ikoma]

Watching the eel on Ioan fall limp Hassid stumbles through the water, trying to get to Adam.  But the mud and silt and water hinder him... as do his teammates who block the way in their attempts to rescue Adam.

Marius repositions and slashes at the eel with his sword, but the blade fails to connect as the bottom falls away and Marius finds himself chest deep in a pool.  He pivots on his back foot trying to bring the blade down in a half-circle, but the boggy mud below traps his foot, if not for his near perfect balance he surely would have fallen.  Marius glances at Adam his face speaking sorrows of sorry.

Ioan's spirit-hammer smashes the eel again, but the water softens the blow. Ioan swings his own hammer in concert, but misses entirely.

The eel has no such troubles as it continues to suck Adam dry.   [Adam: -3 CON (-7 total), -27 hp (-63 total)]

[Ikoma]

Yemam continues swinging his sword at the eel, but the sight of his friend slowly wasting away to nothing is disheartening and the scout's accuracy is low.  The eel itself is bloated and energetic.  It has rarely feasted this well...  Finally free of the water, Hassid stumbles over to Adam to help kill the thing attached to him.  The swordsman slices into the eel and blood flows... almost as if the animal was under pressure.  As if it were in danger of gorging itself to death on the paladin's blood.  [If this were 4e, I would say the eel is bloodied.]

In his haste to help Adam, Hassid failed to realized Marius tactics in providing his with space to dance with his blade.  Marius cursed his slow reflexes.  Chest deep in the water Marius continued his swing.  As the blade came up in a half-circle Marius turned his wrist and brought the blade down and across, the water sprayed and and he could not see if it connected.  Marius allowed for the blades natural momentum and as the blade glided to the right, he again turned his wrists and sliced across to the left catching it across a fin.

Ioan's Spirit Hammer swings at the eel, and the blow looks solid. Ioan himself swings, and hits a lot of water.  The hammer crushes down on the eel's head and the thing goes limp almost immediately.  It does not detach... nor does it stop sucking.  But it is now listless and obviously damaged.  [Adam: -3 CON (-10 total), Adam's below 0 hp]

[Marius Ionescu]

Marius took a moment to step out of himself and watched the battle - things were moving in slow motion now, and he feared for Adam.  They were in the final stretch now seconds from victory or death ...

[Ikoma]

Yemam continues to struggle to hit the eel, his motion thrown off from the extra weight on his heart and the extra weight on his sword.  But Hassid and Marius finish the job in near succession.  The bloated corpse of the eel drifts away in the stagnant water.  Adam is still white faced and near death.  But he's not dead... and that's the important thing.  Ioan grabs a hold of the Paladin and begins to drag him to the dry land.

[Marius Ionescu]

The sounds of battle faded, Marius smiled at Hassid as they finished off the eel, almost expecting a high five.  The spellsword sheathed his sword moved as fast as his legs allowed grabbing Adam along with Ioan and helped dragging him to shore. 

As they got to shore Marius fell to his knees and held the paladin shaking him heard, "don't you die on me, you hear me, don't you dare die on me!" he screamed holding back tears.  Marius undertook the path along with the group partly in great influence from Adam, and the deaths of friends and family lost had taken a toll on Marius' fragile mind.

Shaking he waited and watched for signs of life ...

[unkabear]

Hassid used his own cloak to clean his blade before placing it back into its sheath on his back, then began the process of detaching the Eel from his leg using his smaller blade to do so.  With the head of the eel off his leg, Hassid limped to the island, avoiding the deep water he had tried to swim through before, offering a hand to Abrud to help him to dry land.

[Yemam Silverman]

Yemam feels his strength drained after the fight.  The effects of the hag on top of the frantic attacks at the eel were exhausting.  However, the scout's shame and his concern for Adam's life kept him going.  Yemam was not able to save his friend from an eel...how is he to help protect the group from Strahd?

Yemam sheathes the Sunsword and hurries to Adam's side.  "WAKE UP Adam...You are too much of a shining beacon in this dreadful place.  Pull through...please" The last word barely leaving Yemam's mouth.

[Marius Ionescu]

Marius continued to shake in terror of losing a friend ... he waited for a sign of life from Adam, or a sign from Ioan to let him know their friend was ok ...

[Ikoma]

Adam is breathing... barely and shallow.  He is pale.  His eyes do not open.  He is limp.  The head of the eel still has its numerous needle-like teeth embedded in his leg.

As you come onto the dry land, you see another magic circle... similar to the one in the cave on Lysaga Hill.  The hag's body lies outside the circle where she fell.