After opening the front door to the house, Roland stood aside to allow others to file in ahead of him. Upon seeing the bloody scene, the aasimar frowned but said nothing else. Seeing Ian taking the physical search initiative, Roland begins assessing the house for magical residue.
Leo follows along, providing a light source of the others and keeping an open eye for anything unusual or overlooked.
Opening the door reveals the expected bedroom. A window at the back of the room is open, letting in the night air - outside which is a corpse of a man lying in the narrow back alley, torn and shredded like the woman. A couple of rats skitter away from the corpse when the window itself is approached to get a better look.
Nothing, apart from the equipments of your companions, detects as magical.
Something assaults your mind, fighting to take control of your body. The struggle is brief and you succeed and repulsing whatever it is.
Ian flinches away from the window, drawing his sword. His jaw muscles clench and unclench for a moment as his eyes glaze over, then he shakes his head, blinking.
"What the f$*& was that..."
He aggressively steps through the window and into the alley, looking left and right.
"What was what?" Leo says, concerned as Ian climbs out of the window. He'll approach, but not climb through after him just yet.
Rilumin carefully steps out, trailing Ian. Keeping him in sights with his bow, in case Ian is assaulted. Rilumin looks around to rooftops and other windows as well.
Ian clearly saw something. What was it?
From above a rasping inhuman voice speaks from the darkness, though no speaker is visible, "The hounds have come, but their masters are away."
Leo's eyes go wide beneath his shades, and he looks up towards the ceiling. He concentrates his cone of detect magic above the window, hoping to sense something through the materials of the ceiling.
Well, nothing magical at all about this place, Roland drolls as he takes in the dearth of auras and general ambiance in one double entendre. He turned to speak to the group but was cut off by Ian's outburst. The aasimar follows Leo and Rilumin out the window, and while Leo scans above, Roland scanned the surrounding area with Detect Magic. Yes, just the hounds here. And who might the hounds be speaking with? Any chance for nice chat? Obviously we are just underlings you could kill whenever you chose, so before killing us you might want to explain why you killed the nice woman here.
Serelina crosses her arms a bored look on her face.
"It is likely the cat-woman from earlier today."
"No... I don't think so." Leo says, remembering when the catwoman called out while trying to kill him. "Totally different voice..."
The voice laughs a malicious laughter. "Oh no. You are not so weak as you pretend." it laughs again. "I am to merely observe. To wait and to watch."
"The woman was nothing. You also kill when it pleases you. I've seen your wizardess do it. She will do so again." The position of the voice from the nearby rooftop moves slightly as it speaks, as though moving towards the main street.
"What is it you hunt for your masters while they perish in the forests?"
"F@$* you."
Growing annoyed, Serelina says "You clearly went through some trouble to get our attention... What is it that you want?"
"I'm waiting for you to kill the paladin. His continued living is interfering with my work." the voice rasps in laughter.
The same voice speaks directly into your mind, filled with contempt and derision, "Perhaps I shall save you to feast on later."
Still trying to gauge the invisible interlocutor's location, Roland answered in a light, amused tone. Really? Are you two in some sort of competition? Rather seems like he is winning, yes? Well, makes me wonder if you really CAN do anything more than ambushing housewives. You seem to need us to kill this paladin you speak of, I suppose that means you aren't up to the task. What a shame.
"You shall know pain" it hisses, at the same time everything goes pitch black, even for those with dark vision.
With a whispered prayer to Nethys, Leo gestures around him casting Bless, bolstering all of his allies around him.
Being the target of a divine spell, his Divine Vessel kicks in as well for a buff-double-whammy.
Initiative
Thinking quickly, Serelina casts a spell to try and counter the darkness. She then moves to the east about twenty feet trying to gain some additional range.
Despite Serelina's efforts, the deeper darkness remains covering everything.
Roland takes flight as the others stumble about the darkness. The whispering of beating wings and a brief downdraft of wind near Roland and Rilumin attest to a creature taking flight. The wind and sound only giving clue that Roland was nearly upon the creature.
"You brat!" Leo remembers Foria's voice as he once again practiced the only bit of magic that hadn't eluded him for nearly his entire life. This wasn't the magic of a cleric, granted to a worthy vessel through prayer by the Gods. This was a magic in his blood and body, granted to him and others born like him. Once he could do it, he used it to suddenly blind his friends when they were sleeping or otherwise had lowered their guards. He did it frequently. "Do that again and I'll break your nose!" He did, she did.
"Enough of this damned dark!" Leo mutters, smirking at the memory. He reaches into himself for the magic within his Aasimar blood and from it brings out light.
He then climbs out of the window and looks around for the enemy.
Channeling through her bonded item, Serelina again tries to dispel the darkness.
A burst of light emanates from Leo, though it is severely muted by the darkness compared to what he normally expects. The lighting in the area returns to that of the night with the stars twinkling overhead.
30' up and to the west of Roland a part of the night sky is blotted out by bat like wings spanning 5'-6' across, a semi-humanoid head resting between them. The body of the creature fades off like smoke.
The creature is a shadow demon. Like all demons it is immune to cold, electricity, and poison, and resistant to fire and acid. Shadow demons also have a high resistance to magic.
"The creature is a shadow demon. Like all demons it is immune to cold, electricity, and poison, and resistant to fire and acid. Shadow demons also have a high resistance to magic."
Seeing the lights brighten, Serelina changes tactics and calls forward a minor spell but imbues it with greater power. Four missiles streak forth from her hands, launching at incredible speed towards the creature.
As the darkness cleared, Roland shot skyward after the demon. Wait! Wait! he pled in mocking tones, you said you would teach us about pain! Does "pain" mean "run away like a frightened child"? I'm so confused! Upon reaching the fiend, Roland attempted to rake it with one of his 4 claws, making sure to not block Rilumin's shot at the creature.
Ian chucks a Javelin from his quiver before the beast can fly too far away.
Shadow demons also have several innate spell like abilities.
Are incorporeal, and resistant to weapons that are not made of cold iron or good aligned.
Shadow demons become powerless in sunlight.
The fiery darts of Serelina's spell arc toward the demon, then simply vanish just before striking.
Neither Ian or Roland have any better luck. Their attacks strike where the creature is, but pass right through it harmlessly.
"Magical, cold iron or holy weapons if you have them!
He cast it at the beginning of the day thru his Extend Rod, it lasts 14 hours
Rilumin unloads as many shots as he can into the beast.
Shot 1 (two arrows)
Shot 2
Shot 3
Rikumin's first shot is wide. The next two inflict minor wounds on the demon.
"Come and find me." the demon chortles as it drifts 5' away from Roland then vanishes with a soft pop.
Greater teleport
Serelina relaxes a bit.
"It has teleported, it could by anywhere on the continent... Near or far. It is capable of such teleportation at will, so we had best be where it doesn't expect us."
"Son of a b+&!*, how do we kill that thing?"
"Overwhelming force before it can act or powerful magics well prepared... For now, we had best return to the Tower."