Burnt Offerings

The militia kick away the defeated Orik's sword and drag him unresisting into the room beyond, allowing Sasha to duck out of harm's way and fall exhausted into Poot's arms, which nearly knocks the little halfing over. While he is overjoyed to see his friend, he knows the fight is not nearly over.

Nualia falls back under Yola's fierce attack. The two women trade powerful blows back and forth. Yola's attacks are fueled by her both her Shoanti rage and Poot's magical encouragement, but Nualia fights back with a super human strength, clearly augmented by her own dark magic. After Yola scores a second telling blow against her, Nualia strikes back with a crippling backhand swipe, and though Yola barely feels the deep wound through the haze of her battle rage, the force of the blow sends her staggering to the side. Nualia seizes the the opportunity to duck inside the northern chamber and slam the door behind her. Still not realizing how badly she has been hurt, Yola slams into the door and yells out in frustration, " Come back here you white haired witch!"

Alpert, Rizzo and Dyer pile into the hallway to assist Yola while the others set about binding Orik. "Uh, boss," Mullroy says. "This guy's still bleeding pretty bad from where Sasha stuck him." As if on cue, Orik's eyes roll up in the back of his head and he passes out.

Things are balanced on a hair! Yola and Nualai each scored two colossal hits against one another, with Yola taking 24 hp in damage! She's got 9 left but 6 of those are temporary and disappear when she stops raging. Your decision now: Pursue Nuaila immediatly, or stop for a few rounds to use the last of Poot's healing magic ( and don't forget that Sasha has two healing potions as well) and maybe get the gates up for Gerund and Seoni. Remember that while Sasha and Yola are dangerously close to 0 HP, every round spent waiting is a round that Nualia and Lyrie could be up to no good on the other side of that door.