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| This didn't go well. |
A Dagger Darkly
There was flash of darkness fitting between the moment when the bugbear's morningstar was falling like a meteor down on her buckler and when she was waking up on the floor to the tingling sensation of a healing potion being shoved down her throat and Mythram crouched over her form.
The crushed form of one of the Red Brands lay crumpled nearby, clearly not slain by any of her group. Meaning that these thugs were slaying their own allies and as Caress pulled herself to her feet she hardened her gaze. A second potion was thrust into her hands and she swallowed it down.
They'd followed the story of a young halfling child and found a secret entrance to some sort of cavern that the Red Brands had been using for their base. It was immediately clear that this wasn't just the average band of roughs gathered around a hedge mage with ambitions. There was a creature that gibbered into their minds and spoke of rotting meat and calling them food. A hideous cannibalistic abberation that had nearly killed the rogue.
The entire fight she'd felt a bit off. Her steps were uncertain, her blows failing to land. Her goddess was with her as evidenced through the magic she'd been able imbue her whip and dagger with. Sharess had not left her. The flaw was not in her relationship with her goddess, which meant it was somewhere in her relationship with herself. Her mind and body were split north and south so much that she probably couldn't even pull off a simple parlor trick like splitting a bottle. And that had almost killed her.
The bugbear roared in laughter as Ravyn reached out with her own magic to overwhelm his senses and Mythram called out that other bandits were sending flankers. So, she left the chortling bugbear behind to rush through the halls and take a position watching Lyra's flank. The sorceress moved further up, trying to flank the thugs herself, and when she called out in shock on entering the next room, Caress new that they had made a more estimation of the bandit's intentions.
Fortunately, the eladrin was able to care for herself and the next thing Caress knew, the thug was coming into her line of sight and Lyra was calling out that he was taking some papers from the desk. The yuan-ti rushed forward and reached for one of the decorative pinions on her armor, pulling it off to reveal the dart and toss it out across the cavern to cut a slight line across the bugbear's shoulder before rearming herself with her whip.
The chortling of the bugbear from the other room cut off in a sharp gargle that could not elicit any regret or pity from her. These bandits had made their choices and the sight of another bugbear setting up to provide cover for the one running re-focused her attention, though not in time to lay a good blow on the bugbear that darted past her position. Though it wasn't a complete loss as Mythram's blades struck true and cut the fleeing bandit wide open.
Caress shifted down and cracked her whip, letting the radiant light suffusing it wash outward. This time it wasn't her own lack of focus and balance that caused her blow to fail, but the enemy's own skill in defense as the bugbear that had stepped forward to cover their ally's escape dodged the strike. In the moment of that dodge, Mythram almost seemed to walk up and around the wall and land with a dancer's grace as she slew the fleeing thug.
Ravyn's and Lyra's voices called out from further back in the cavern, casting spells at the remaining bandit, though they seemed to be shrugging them off as Caress swung the whip in a circle over her head and lashed out with a crack that sounded like the growling yowl of an attacking wild cat and pulled the head off of the thug even as divine radiance set their soul afire such that the body shriveled and collapsed.
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| Critical Smite |
The conversation that followed as they rested was somehow more of a trial than the fight itself.
"It is fortunate for us that the devotees of Shar are such efficient killers," she had said, not expecting the rogue to take offense.
"That's not all we do."
Mythram then spoke of her sect, the Darkcloaks and how she had predominately cared for those that had suffered some sort of disability. She spoke of something called the Sightless Labyrinth, a metaphor for the efforts of the faithful to navigate the questions of what it meant to be devoted to their god. Caress had started to respond that her relationship with Sharess was more in the nature of lovers than a servant, but stopped and considered the task of fulfilling the needs of even a passing supplicant much less a long-term partner or mate.
Was it the idea of navigating a darkened labyrinth really all that different from the delicate balancing of matched souls trying to balance what each other needed and wanted?
It would have to be something she would need to ponder later. This hideout had not yet been cleared and Caress's eyes turned to face the passages that they had not yet explored.
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