"Oh f~$~ that hurt..." Hannik holds one hand over her injured face while stomping and kicking the fallen demon for good measure. Eventually she gets it out of her system and gingerly peels her blood soaked hand away to reveal a series of ragged slashes running completely across the lower part of her face, just below the nose. "How bad is it? It feels... bad."
At Kaygan's question she nods. "Sort of. Not a secret room or anything, but temple wards grow up here. We know all of the places to hide and most of them an adult or full sized demon couldn't squeeze into.
"There is a crawl space under the dias where services are held. If it was the three of them trying to find a space together that's about the only place big enough."
"Yes, that does look bad. Sol, do you still have that wand? If so, get over here and use it. Hopefully the magic will heal it all up."
"The dais you say?"
Kira will wander over and have a look then, once Sol is healing Hannik.
Once she is told where is it, it is easy to find the space under the dias. As she peers in, the area she is standing in suddenly goes dark.
"Oh F*$K!"
"Wait hold on! Ansell, is that you?" She waits for a moment listening, "It's Hannik. I brought friends."
There's a rustle of movement under the dais, but no one speaks.
Never one to be trusting, Kira will detect evil into the space....
"Hey, it's ok to come out now. We really are here to help."
There is most movement but no one emerges.
"Kid, if I have to ask Ghroth to rip up the floor boards I'm gonna be pissed. The wardstones are broken, but the city isn't abandoned yet. If you want to get out of here, we have to get you back to the Crusaders before they pull out." Silence.
"What the hell? You don't believe its me? I was waiting on the three of you in Clydwell Plaza when the city got ripped in half. I had a bag of candied almonds for Lianni because they are her favourite. I come by here every Sunday just to make sure you knuckleheads are doing alright and right now we have to get out of here. It isn't safe here anymore!"
A child's voice pipes, "Hannik, is that you?"
"With bells on. Thank Iomedae you still live child."
Something like a knot in Hannik chest finally comes undone at the voice. Despite her pleas in the pitch darkness, she wasn't really sure whether she might actually be addressing some slithering tentacle demon. Tears begin to flow as chokes out, "Yeah. It's me. Come on. Let's get outta here."
Jod lets the others deal with the search for the kids. He peers through the doors into the adjacent rooms to see for himself how completely the demons had destroyed the temple. His face has a stormy cast as he takes it all in.
"Desna smiles," murmurs Kaygan.
A little boy aged about six crawls out of the space under the dias. His eyes are a bright yellow with vertical slit pupils, and small stubby horns like those of a goat sprout from his forehead. His face is streaked with dirt and tears. He cowers before the armed and armoured strangers, then catches sight of Hannik. He gives a moan and runs over to her, burying his face in her coat and sobbing.
Jod cases the rest of the joint. To the left he finds dormitories and sleeping areas. These are thoroughly trashed and defiled, although there are no more bodies. On the other side he finds an art studio. The demons have taken a particular delight in smashing to fragments virtually everything in here. However, there are no bodies in here either.
Kaygan crouches down beside Hannik and the young tiefling. "Child," he says softly. "Are any more of your friends hiding down there? Or any of the priests? We'd like to take you all somewhere safer than this."
"For whatever good it does, I see no bodies other than these poor souls. I did not look for hiding places, but saw no obvious victims."
"Looks like we found a mini Mulluq. Let's hope he grows as strong and true."
Mulluq tried to keep his form hidden during the search, assuming that any scared children would balk at the mere sight of him. Staying quiet and near the back, but peering about the room to avoid any unwanted surprises. At the mention of his name, he looks to the discovered child, then hangs his head in sorrow. He can only feel bad for the child, and has no words of encouragement for someone cursed like himself. "It's best not to coddle the child." he remarks to the others as he approaches, "Life will be hard enough without filling him with a false sense of acceptance." He turns to the child with a sigh, "Ansell, is it? You need to look past your fear and steel yourself, as these are dark times, where kind such as ours will receive no favor or quarter based off what the demon's have wrought in this most holy of bastions. Any good that can come from your deeds in answering our questions, will only support the faith of others in your own ability to fight your heritage. I bid thee, speak child, that we may root out the evil in the name of all that is holy, Iomedae the Inheritor, and for the sake of Shelyn in this, her temple and followers that saw fit to look past your exterior. Now, tell us, are there any more children or priests here in the temple, or demonkind that we must vanquish?"
Hannik cuts her eyes at Mulluq and his 'tough love.' "Shelyn's grace Mulluq! He's six!" She waves one hand around the devastation in the temple while the other hugs the boy, "I think he's figured out that the world is a cold hard place! Way more than he needs to know at this age."
She holds Ansell close then at arms length and kneels down to look him in the eye, "He's a little harsh, but his heart is in the right place. And it is serious Ansell. Where are Orett and Lianni? We killed two demons. Are there more?"
Mulluq shrugs, "Evil does not care what age you are, and spares no intentions because of it. Devils may favor corruption, but Demons embrace devastation."
Hannik looks into the boy's eyes and says sarcastically, "Never mind him. The inquisitor over there pisses on his breakfast every morning so he's always like this. Church orders you know?" Hannik stands up and takes Ansell by the hand, "C'mon. Show us where the others are. We need to keep moving."
"Hey! Not every morning."
"Mulluq, cheer up. We've talked about how your self depreciation turns into prideful melancholy before. Show the child, the power for Good that you are, not the fear that you hold."
The boy blinks upwards tearfully. "Others?"
A concerned frown settles on Hannik's face, "Lianni and Orett. Didn't you come back here together?"
The boy gulps down tears. "I'd been naughty and was hiding from the priests when the demons came. I stayed where I was because I was scared. I don't know what happened to the others." He begins crying again.
"Oh hell. Don't worry about that now. We are going to see if the other kids are here or any of the clerics and get you back to the resistance." Hannik turns back to Ghroth, "We're gonna have to search the rest of the place. They could still be in the workshop, their rooms, or upstairs in the clerics' rooms."
"Let's check the workshop first since we are here."
Ghroth lopes over to the door where the second demon was hiding.
A search of the temple finds no more bodies, but no more survivors either.
"Well ... no more bodies is a good sign," murmurs Kaygan. "If those demons hate beauty so much, children would likely be among their first targets. Maybe some of the priests managed to get them out."
Jod looks at Hannik when their 'tour' of the wreckage brings them back to the battle site and the original desecrated bodies they'd seen. "How many would you expect to be here? I know you gave their names earlier, but I don't remember them all... I'm just wondering how many we have that are unaccounted for."
“An accounting of the bodies may not add up,” Kaygan warns. “A temple like this would have had all sorts of functionaries and guards in addition to the priests and orphans, and who knows how the festival might have impacted their shifts? In addition, it is likely that others may have sought refuge here during or after the initial attack.”
Jod hold his hands up, frustration evident as he turns to the mage. "Fine. Try this on for size. Here's my thinking - if there are two bodies here and normally there are eight in the temple, that means there are six friends of my friend that might still be alive out there. Because every person those abyssal..." He looks at the child and lowers his voice a bit, "every good person the demons didn't get is a small win for us. And I'll take every win I can find."
He moves over to the door of the temple and watches the street for movement.
Kaygan lets Jod walk away, then sighs, realising that he had let his analytical thinking get in the way of offering comfort at a tense time – for at least the second time today. Grimacing and steeling himself against the grim task, he tries to re-count the bodies in the main room and assess if any of them might have had the stature of children.
"I agree Jod, any who got away before those demons arrived is a win. Kaygan is correct though, people are likely to have fled here for safety. The lack of bodies is possibly a good sign. Hannick, where would the priests have run? Are we missing some secret passages or catacombs or something they could be hiding in?"
"I would expect more people than this. There other kids, another priest, parishioners looking for shelter..."
"If they had some secret passage for escape, it isn't the kind of thing they would share with the kids. Hard enough to keep them from running around as it is."
"Damn it. I don't want to think about what could have happened. It's too few bodies though and I have to hope that one of the priests got some survivors out of here. But for now we have to get back to Defender's Heart. If you see anything we or the crusaders can use that they haven't destroyed grab it. The temple is lost. For now."
"Agreed, we take what it obvious and get back to the defenders."