<span style="font-style: italic">Winnow is a vixen, i.e. a fox, not a wolf. Yula is the wolf.<br/><br/>Also, I've got some bad news for zeusthunder/Salana: you forgot that Salana was marked by Yula's last attack, giving her a -2 penalty to attack anyone besides Yula, which would be just enough to make her miss. However, this is canceled out by the fact that <span style="font-weight: bold">I</span> made a mistake: Yula only should have been able to make a basic attack, due to her charging.<br/><br/>Incidentally, this means that Marrok can't mark Nairen with his attack. Not that it really matters, since Marrok is the only target in range for him.<br/><br/>Saraphina's use of a ranged attack in melee draws an attack of opportunity from Winnow.<br/><br/>Lastly, there's a power of Yula's you should be aware of: she can shift 1 square to follow anyone who tries to shift away from her. </span><br/><br/>One of the braver orcs hurtles himself into the fray with a fanatic cry, giving no thought to his own defense. One of his wild swings catches Salana by surprise and strikes her painfully on the knee. The other two are less eager: the other male circles around to help Nairen with Marrok, though he doesn't look eager to actually engage a wolf who clearly made a meal out of one of the much tougher fighters who faced him a minute ago. The female moves down to help threaten Saraphina, though she doesn't strike yet.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Orc acolyte 2 charges Salana, ending in D-10. Because of Salana's reduced AC from being stuffed, she is hit and takes 5 damage. Orc 1 double moves outside and circles around to help flank Marrok. Orc 3 double-moves to H-11 to help threaten Saraphina.</span><br/><br/>Winnow grimaces hatefully at Saraphina as she retreats from the line of fire, seeking cover (rather fruitlessly) as she goes. As she passes the orcs, she glances at the bound drow, and a wicked grin splits her muzzle. "Stay back, you scum!" she shouts at Saraphina. "You come closer or throw fire at me again, and your little friend here is going in my belly! And believe me, she won't last long!"<br/><br/>It seems that the vixen is still acting under the misunderstanding that the bandits (almost certainly the Black Silk Crew, judging by their composition) were affiliated with the heroes somehow.<br/><br/>Yula, meanwhile, stares at Salana with a mixture of shock and seething anger as she looks at the human woman's bulging, rune-covered belly. Only now does what Salana said a moment ago sink in. "My soul... for eternity? You mean to say that you actually<span style="font-style: italic">do</span>trap souls and prevent them from reincarnating?!" The beautiful wolfess's muzzle hangs open in disgust, and she lets out a low, menacing growl, her tail bristling. "This will not stand! I'm going to send YOUR essence back to the Lake of Souls, along with whatever unfortunate you have in you now!"<br/><br/>With a single, powerful leap, Yula propels herself up a good four feet in the air, displaying impressive agility indeed considering the heaviness of her scythe. She tilts forward as she descends, open jaws coming down on Salana before she can hope to prevent it. Whereas most predators only manage to get their prey's head inside their throat on the first lunge, Yula is exceptionally strong and flexible, enfolding Salana all the way up to her chest in hot, wet flesh within a few seconds. With gravity on he side, Yula didn't even need to swallow.<br/><br/>Now, however, comes the hard part: the bulge where the wicked bunnygirl Salana slurped down a minute ago was digesting. Yula was effectively attempting to swallow two at once... but Mirelle was already highly compacted by Salana's belly, and Yula's throat had accomodated some very large adversaries in the past. Swallowing hard, Yula sends the already stuffed girl down her own throat. The she-wolf's midsection swells enormously with the combined mass of two meals.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">*BURP*</span>Yula's jaw pops back into place with a snap, and she licks her chops with satisfaction as she turns towards Saraphina. "Mmph... Well, as delicious as you look, I don't think I can eat another. A shame. I suppose I'll just have to beat you into submission and give you to Winnow or Nairen." At the vixen's name, she glances over her shoulder. "Get back here!" At the same time, she makes a gesture with her hand, which is surrounded by a brief glow, and Winnow's painful burns visibly heal over, even growing back some of her charred fur. With so much food in her belly, most of it actively struggling to get out, Yula's balance looks to be badly thrown off.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Winnow badly misses her AoO, shifts to get out of the threatened area, then moves (the difficult terrain cutting one off her movement) to get to C-5. She also begins shifting, increasing her AC and Reflex defenses. Nairen attacks Marrok, and, thanks to his stuffed -2 AC penalty, hits him, dealing 4 damage. Nairen's attack power lets him shift to I-10, then he shifts again to J-9.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Yula grabs Salana (26 to hit). Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, but... elite enemies have one action point. Uh oh! Yula uses her action point to attempt to swallow Salana. 20 to hit. Swallowed! The good news is that, due to being 'double-stuffed', Yula's AC, Reflex and Move penalties are all worsened by an additional -1, for a punishing -5 to AC and Reflex (at least until Salana is reduced to 0 hit points...). Yula then uses her move action to shift to E-11, and a minor action to use 'Word of Healing' on Winnow, healing the vixen for 8 hit points. Note that being stuffed does not affect escape attempts, but also note that Yula's reflex defense is not affected by stuffing for the purposes of Salana's escape attempts. The good news is, Yula can't do that again!</span><br/><br/>Nairen barely winces when the cold steel cuts a shallow groove across his chest. He just takes advantage of the drop in Marrok's guard to lash out twice with his sabre, avoiding the chainmail to strike at unprotected areas. Only one connects, giving Marrok a small a but irritating cut across the back of his left hand. Marrok's grip loosens in response to the pain, and Nairen hops back and out of reach. When he's at a safe distance, he gives his erstwhile comrade a grim, sardonic smile. "So, I suppose you're expecting me to start ranting religious dogma? Foaming at the mouth? Staring dumbly like a magically dominated puppet? If only it were that simple." He sighs and shakes his head. "I'd get out of here if I were you: I've seen Miss Big Bad Wolf in there have far tougher fighters than you or I for breakfast, and despite all of your flunkies out here, she has the trump card."<br/><br/>One of the more capable mercenaries, another of Saraphina's tiefling followers, enters the fray at this point. Many of the other mercs are either already injured or still working up their courage to venture into the foreboding interior of the inn, but Casandra the mage is still fresh and ready to fight. She doesn't really look like a hardened mercenary, with her small horns and bright red hair done up in pigtails. But Saraphina knows that Casandra is as voracious as any in her outfit, often trading away her share of treasure in return for a good meal. "Ho, Saraphina! My powers are yours to command! Let's bring that vicious bitch down!"<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Casandra enters the battle on the players' side. She rolls a 13 for her initiative. She'll act after Marrok.</span><br/><br/><img alt="Image" src="http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9231/encounter2rnd2n.png"/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">New Rule</span>:Much to Salana's chagrin, we're getting a demonstration of a scenario that will come up from time to time: when a pred swallows someone who already has a medium-size creature in her stomach. Salana's reduced reflex defense makes her a relatively easy target to grab and swallow. To help counteract this, I'm going to rule that the swallow attack against a stuffed target suffers a -2 penalty due to their expanded girth. Preds in this setting can stretch their bodies in biology-defying ways, but there are limits. Swallowing a stuffed pred also increases the 'outside' pred's stuffing penalties, giving another -1 to defenses and -1 move speed.<br/><br/>Initiative: Note that raised or lowered defenses are now included in parentheses.<br/><br/>Winnow and Nairen: 26<br/>Yula: 19 (wins tiebreaker)<br/>Saraphina: 19<br/>Marrok: 16<br/>Casandra: 13<br/>Salana: 7+<br/>Orcs: 7<br/><br/>Status scroll:<br/><br/>Winnow: 16/37 AC: 16(17) Fort: 12 Ref: 14(15) Will: 12<br/>Nairen: 25/37 AC: 16 Fort: 12 Ref: 14 Will: 12 (marked)<br/><br/>Orc acolyte 1: 1/1 AC: 16 Fort: 15 Ref: 12 Will: 12<br/>Orc acolyte 2: 1/1 AC: 16 (14) Fort: 15 Ref: 12 Will: 12<br/>Orc acolyte 3: 1/1 AC: 16 Fort: 15 Ref: 12 Will: 12<br/><br/>Yula: 134/134 AC: 20 (15) Fort: 20 Ref: 17 (12) Will: 18 (Stuffed with Salana)<br/><br/>Players and Allies<br/><br/>Saraphina: 36/45. AC: 16 Fort, Ref and Will: 15<br/><br/>Salana: 28/42. AC: 21 (19) Fort: 19 Ref: 15 (13) Will: 16 (stuffed, in Yula's stomach)<br/><br/>Marrok: 19/46. AC: 21 (17) Fort: 19 Ref: 16 (14) Will: 16 (stuffed)<br/></span>