Well, that was in no way comforting. Gretchen frowned, watching the area the dog had disappeared into until another fit of coughing had her turning with Melvin to return to Ro's side. Apparently whatever had hit him before was still in the air. She grimaced, raising a hand to make sure her own scarf was wrapped securely, though that really didn't seem to have helped the Mist much.
Movement in her peripheral caught her attention easily, some dark shape at the edge of the sinkhole they were all standing beside, but it was gone as she turned to look at it, staff raising defensively.
"I think we should get moving," she suggested to the pair of them, not tearing her eyes away from the sinkhole. "This things not safe. further away, the better." And maybe if they got Roland away from him he'd be able to breath a little more easily.
Quote:
21 - 40: You find one of the town's many enormous sinkholes, clouded with smoke and smelling noxious. From the corner of your eye you see a black shape scuttling across the rim, but by the time you turn to see what it is it has disappeared down into the hole.
81- 100: BOSS ENCOUNTER: - You spy what appears to be an explorer or perhaps a resident: a young man of perhaps twenty in hipster glasses, smoking a cigarette and gazing down into a sinkhole. He looks up at you and smiles as the earth crumbles beneath his feet, sending him plunging down. You see him take a calm drag before he's swallowed up. Barely a second passes before a great crawling shape heaves itself out of the sinkhole: a charred black being perhaps ten feet tall with a fiery gleam in the cracks of its joints, accompanied by little skittering, emberlike shapes that immediately launch themselves in your direction. It opens its glowing red mouth to roar at you, belching smoke and steam and the smell of sulfur.
- BOSS MECHANICS: This boss is a mob with a collective 100 HP. Every time you attack it (following the general battle rules), you TAKE 8 damage. You will need to deal with both the main monster and also the smaller living embers flanking it, although the latter can actually be stomped out as though they were cigarette butts, if they're in reach. Make sure to tally the boss's total HP (the damage you did to it) at the bottom of your post as well as your total HP and the damage you did that round. If the boss's HP hits 0, you have defeated it, and your team can now take the portal back.
Melvins offer of a scarf was added quickly to try and block out the smoke, but it didn't do much it had already taken hold on Roland. He was still coughing. He tried to wave Melvin away, trying to get them to move on but instead he just started coughing even more.
His own eyes drifted towards where Gretchen was facing, her staff was readied but he couldn't see what it was that had given her a start. His own gaze drifted and he saw a figure, someone in a pair of glasses.
It was funny, whoever it was they where smoking which seemed like a terrible idea around this location. The coughing stopped and Roland had started to stand up when the figure dropped into the sink hole, or rather, a new one formed around him.
"W-ha did you guys just see that s-"
His words did not finish, instead a sound of chaos ensued, a towering beast of smoke and fire seemed to erupt from the ground smaller minions leaping out with it like twisting living cinder.
"s**t!"
He was scrambling forward on his hands and knees stumbling to stand up his great scythe flashing into existence as he took a wild swing knocking the first ember aside.
"WELL THEN!" He coughed a bit more, "THAT explains why they sent us."
That certainly did explain their presence here. Gretchen stared up at the smoldering beasty with wide, frightened eyes as her grip of her staff tightened until her knuckles turned molten.
For a very brief second she was frozen, and then Melvin spoke, snapping her out of her terror with his dry comment, and the trainee was moving smoothly into action. Just a small hiccup, a small mistake. She'd make up for it, she had to. Devika hissed menacingly in agreement.
She moved in to assist, staff coming back for a heavy swing at the thing's body, but too slowly. A smoking limb came down to catch the trainee in the stomach, sending her tumbling back and away as easily as swatting away a bothersome fly.
When the beast fully formed Sylvia would finally flicker to life in Roland's hand the gnarled and twisted great scythe a comforting presence as he moved forward so Melvin and him stood before Gretchen.
He moved to swing at the smoldering arm that struck the other hunter but his swing was slow, missing entirely. He turned trying to cut down a few of the smaller ones but again his swings where off.
<< You're rusty... you've not practice in ages you're out of tempo and step you're going to get us all killed. >>
As if to prove his weapons point a few of the smaller embers lashed out at the hunter driving him back into their trio.
"I doubt water is going to stop this less your weapon was some sort of sea beast before hand."
