The five of you take a few second to ready yourselves, Kasumi and Deneve weaving magic to better prepare themselves for the challenge ahead, just as your opponent appears to be doing. “It is a simple warding spell, even adepts can do it,” Red shrugs, “If that is the spell it chooses to ward itself with I do not think it has many spells that affect the caster,” the spell weaver adds with a bit of uncertainty.<br/>Not sure how to act on this knowledge, you press forwards towards the cavern. The still air caught between the two walls of rough rock is filled with a potent smell that combines the essence of excrement and carrion, but beneath it are the underlying hints of sulphur and frost powder. On many rocks lie tomes, hastily scrawled, faded letters on leather or thin pages of wood, strangely shaped knives, beads of obsidian and vials and bowls of brightly coloured substances both solid and liquid. One of these rocks has been over turned, spilling a milky sludge across the floor and scattering a trio of dull silver needles.<br/>Your opponent clings to the rocky wall above, seeing you out of the corner of his eye but not turning immediately to face you. It is larger the other bat creatures you have faced, both in height and bulk, but not by much, and its arms remain proportionately thin given its human sized, even with the hints of muscle tone. More striking is the magical displays it has weaved into itself. There a total of 5 creatures, each a perfect copy in appearance and posture to the other, and each has a translucent disk hovering in front of its chest, distorting the skin to bulge when viewed through it. Five pairs of eyes survey its lair, each glowing violet, the writhing energy within them hinting at the power this beast commands.<br/><br/>OOC: Not that I don’t trust your ability to handle this diplomatically, but roll initiative everyone. Bat creature is acting on initiative 4.<br/><br/><strong>  Combat Map</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;">  123456<br/><br/>A XXXXXX<br/>B XT_CXX<br/>C X___XX<br/>D X__T_X<br/>E XB_R_X<br/>F XTKDTX<br/>G XXWSTX<br/>H XX__XX<br/>I XX__XX</span><br/><br/>  Key:<br/>X = Rock<br/>T = separate rock used as table for tome, implement or reagent<br/>_ = open space<br/>C = decaying corpse of some four legged mammal<br/><br/>B = bat creatures, currently clinging to the walls 20ft above the ground.<br/><br/>D = Deneve<br/>K = Kasumi<br/>R= Rose<br/>S = Red, the spell caster<br/>W = Daria, the warrior</div></div><br/>Rose<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Didn’t you also spend 3 power points to recover Dearth Mark?</div></div>