Elisile and Illes spend a few seconds sabotaging the riding gear for the remaining horses before gathering their mounts.
Atop the keep, an large insectoid humanoid strides into view. It clutches a long polearm and both it and its weapon give off a mist as if they are icy cold. It gazes inscrutably over the parapet.
"Stop buggerin' aboot and run!" yells Dravite as he mounts his horse. "That thing up there dis'nae look friendly!" He grabs Crag's harness and trots out of the gate with her in tow.
Seeing the monstrosity on the keep, Tikrok moves towards the gate while channeling a spell to screen the group from attacks from above.
She conjures up a glowing hand that hovers next to her and flies another forty feet east before turning to make sure the others clear the keep.
Well, THAT doesn't look good, Ivori thinks, glancing at the new monstrous arrival - before it is obscured by the sudden cloud.
"Asher, loop north by the waterfall," he tells his companion in a low, urgent voice as he rides past.
Touching his Wayfinder, he invokes the protective power of the Ioun Stone inset within.
"What the hell is that? Better keep moving."
Map
Camlo mounts the horse with a bit of huffing and puffing, then rides away from the fort.
"Oh come on!" Asher fires off a shot from his crossbow at the creature, then turns his horse north towards the waterfall, pulling the reloading lever on his crossbow back. "Is our plan to outrun that demon? Where are we going?!"
Asher's bolt zips past the creatures 'ear', or at least the analogous part of its head. Suddenly, two more creatures appear in the courtyard. They look like bony, almost skeletal giants, their faces little more than grinning skulls covered in taut transluscent skin. From the base of their backs project long scorpion-like tails. They launch themsleves from the ground despite having no obvious means of flight, landing again to perch on the roofs of the stabes and cookhouse and leering down at the Tikrok and Ivori.
The insectoid creature on the keep, meanwhile, also takes to the air, also with no clear way of flying. It circles the Tikroks summoned flog cloud and then waves a claw. A wall of ice suddenly appears between Asher and Tikrok, ten feet tall, sealing off the exit.
Elisile and Illes run from the stables. "These are devils!" yells Elisile, "Get yourselves away while you can!" She casts a spell at the insectoid, but it seems to have no effect.
Illes, meanwhile, casts a spell if quickening.
Dravite rides hard away from the fort.
As the wall appears in front of him, Tikrok lowers his head and tries to burst through the ice. Surveying his handiwork he bellows a challenge at the devils.
Of course they’re devils! These are hellknights, they use devils as manservants! But which ones?
[b]”Bone devils, well I haven’t forgotten everything, but that doesn’t help much.”[/dice]
Asher rides hard after the others.
Camlo stops riding, and glances back at the scene. Abject horror on his face as he struggles to work out how he can help his friends.
Ivori glances around at the increasingly untenable situation, curses under his breath, and makes for the exit.
As Ivori flees the scene, the nearest devil's tail arches over its back, its spiny tip reaching for the warrior.
The devil's stinger makes a hideous, scraping screech on Ivori's pauldron, but fails to find a gap in the armor. An instant later, his breath is nearly sucked out of his lungs by the shocking cold of the gap in the wall of ice, but he stumbles on.
Sefayll will adjust her elevation as necessary before centering a fireball between the insectoid devil and the bone devil on the south.
Sefayll's fireball explodes spectacularly but the devils seem unharmed once it clears.
More hellknights come running around the corner of the curtain wall, heading for Alwyn.
One of the bone devils fires a greenish ray from one of its clawed fingers.
It hits Elisile and bathes her in green light. The other bone devil grins at its fellow and then conjures a hemispere of ice, entrapping both Elisile and Illes.
The insectoid devil lands on top of the new ice dome, the claws on its feet gripping the slippery surface surely. It extends a chitinous digit towards Tikrok and unleashes a blast a bone-chilling cold. The two hellknight guards standing in the way collapse and the front of the wave even reaches to where Alwyn stands by the bridge.
"Tikrok, Asher, hell... Sefayll, converge on me! I'll get us out of here!"
Sefayll realizes there's nothing she can do for the bard and the elven mage and she also knows they aren't the hellknights' true targets, so they should be safe, if very uncomfortable. She casts wall of fire to cut off the approaching guards from the south.
She flies to where Alwyn waits to spirit them away.
Fearing a cycle of smashing and reforming ice walls, Tikrok bellows a mournful cry and moves to Alwyn.