The barn was uncannily dark on the inside... quite odd, considering that it was still midday outside. A lone torch cast long, oppressively dim shadows along the dusty floor, and shadow energy seemed to swirl viciously around the party. Suddenly, a wall of black fire appeared at the doorway, blocking out the sweet embrace of sunlight, and prompting a sickening hyena cackle from the surrounding darkness.
"Well, I take it we found our serial killer," Rolith plainly stated.
"Ahahaha... serials killers? No no no... I's is ans artists!" came a reply, seemingly from the darkness itself.
Kyr Bonegnaw, a legendary gnoll assassin, now appeared before them, his body coalescing from bare shadows. His vacant eyes darted around the room, as the patchwork armor of human bones clinked around his neck. Kyr's gaze finally settled on Artix, and he began to playfully twirl a spiked blade from a chain.
"I loves your bones's... I's thinks I's will takes thems!"
He lunged forward, assailing the party. His blows were devastating, concealing his form with illusionary shadow magic while cutting into his victims with a permeating icy chill. His command of the shadows was indeed impressive, allowing him to literally teleport from shadow to shadow instead of moving by foot, making it hard for the party to pin down his exact location. Nevertheless, our heroes bravely ventured into the darkness and landed several solid blows on the fiend, although the entire party remained precariously wounded.
Artix, turning the fight around, defiantly instructed comrades to stand and fight! With all of the inspiring drama he could muster, he was able to keep the party alive and well through repeated mortal wounds. Kyr, not without a few tricks of his own, responded by conjuring a shadowy duplicate of himself and surrounding his bone armor with a layer of protective darkness. Undaunted, Cysero and Alac continued with a steady stream of damage on their bounty.
The gnoll assassin moved from party member to party member with his attacks, before finally casting "Target for Death" on Rolith. Kyr teleported behind a wall and, relentlessly flinging his chain into the darkness itself, pulled Rolith through his own shadow, causing the hapless fighter to appear directly between the cackling assassin and his shadowy duplicate! Uh oh...
The party, after seeing their comrade just disappear into nothingness, followed Rolith's frantic cries for help to their source, determined to rescue their friend. Rolith held his own, assuming an aggressive stance and defeating the shadowy duplicate with the help of Cysero and Alac.
Kyr, with a nervous twitch, turned invisible and teleported away, trying to trick the party into separating. More blows were struck, and with Artix's healing abilities exhausted, the battle came down to attrition.
Finally, Kyr made one final desperate attempt to slay Rolith. With all of his remaining strength and a frantic whirl of his chain, he whipped the weapon forward, his gaze fixed lasciviously on Rolith's bone structure. However, there was no chain, no spiked blade, no furious outcry of shadow magic from Kyr; only his hand remained frozen in the air. His gaze broke from Rolith, and as his lifeless eyes traveled downward, he found something quite unusual: his own weapon embedded firmly in his gut. Critical failure!
"Aha... haha... hehehehe... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Kyr Bonegnaw died in a fit of uncontrollable hyena laughter, slain by his own hand.
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