Alexa leaps at the blinded guard with her gladius!
Telerin's snowball strikes the blinded guard, and Alexa follows that up with a swift strike from her gladius. The guard falls to the floor, dead.
The two remaining guards that aren't blinded grab their friends, saying something in orcish, and pull them south towards what looks like the hall's main entrance. One pair makes it through the doorway with the other pair not far behind.
"They run! Do we give chase?!" Arloric asks.
"If we let them go they'll be back from that direction with reinforcements. Better not to leave an enemy at our backs!" Darya says, encouraging them to chase after the fleeing guards.
"Then LET'S GO!" Arloric replies before returning to the song and runs after the retreating guards, pausing behind the pillar on the way so he's not shot full of arrows.
She nods. We must be wary, they may set traps for us, or announce our coming to fresh foes. Should we see if those we have dispatched have anything of value?
"If so, we'd better do it quickly!" Uriel says, glancing back and forth between the downed bodies and the direction the others fled.
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"Yes. Let's end this!"
Seeing the enemy retreating, Darya surges forward pressing the advantage as she moves within range, her halo flashing to life, bathing her in fiery golden light as she makes an imposing flourish, staring down the guards with Radiance in hand, an open challenge and promise of a swift death.
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"Yes. Let's end this!"
Seeing the enemy retreating, Darya surges forward pressing the advantage as she moves within range, her halo flashing to life, bathing her in fiery golden light as she makes an imposing flourish, staring down the guards with Radiance in hand, an open challenge and promise of a swift death.
[dice=Intimidate]1d20+17
Guard 2 sees Darya advance out of the corner of his eye and is very visibly shaken.
Uriel steps up behind Darya, his bastard sword in hand. "Surrender and we will spare your lives." Uriel calls out, pitching his voice to reach the farther guards as well.
Uriel's announcement has an immediate effect: both pairs of half-orcs come to an immediate halt, the blind ones stumbling at the abrupt stop.
"OK!" the half-orc in the closer group who can still see exclaims. He leans over to set his bow on the ground, holding both hands up. "We surrender!" His companion does the same.
The group that is out of sight backs into the room, their hands also up. They've dropped their bows as well.
She looks at the more martially minded party members and raises her eyebrow, questioning what they will do.
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Alexa twirls her gladius before sheathing it, looking to Darya with a mix of 'go ahead' and 'I'm going to absolutely ravish you later'.
Catching Alexa's gaze and responding with a quick grin of her own, Darya's face returns to it's previously deadly serious expression as she approaches the surrendering guards, kicking aside their weapons and commanding them each to extend their arms with wrists together as she proceeds to tie a series of handcuff knots with a 50ft length of rope, allowing them to be led along together while restrained.
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They don't resist as you tie them up. One of them even says, "You went through Konneshka and the gargoyles like they were paper. I'm not stupid enough to try something."
Arloric sings the last line of the song and smiles a bit as they tie up the surrendering cultists.
"So...what questions shall we ask them?" he asks the others in a chipper tone.
"Well first of all, who is in charge in this place?" Darya asks, looking at each of the guards.
The guards look at each other for a moment, then the one that surrendered to you says, "Up here? Lord Vhane."
"And where are we most likely to find him?" Darya replies, for the moment ignoring the specificity of the 'up here' part of the response.
He points to the north and says, "Officer's quarters and planning rooms are through there, towards the tower. That's where I'd go if I wanted to find him." He gestures to the rubble by tilting his head. "They leave all this here on purpose. So you gotta work your way around it."
The two sets of double doors directly to the north are blocked, but you could pick your way through to the open passage to the northeast, or to either the doors or the opening to the east.
"Much like the rest of the lands under the demons' sway," Arloric comments on the guards' explanation of the rubble being left where it fell as an obstacle.
"You said 'up here' earlier. Is someone else in charge in the basement?"
"There's a shadow demon down there. It's who's really in charge here, but it leaves the castle and the city to Vhane. Sometimes it comes up here, though. Sometimes even in the daylight, which I guess is a big deal 'cause people talk about it."
Arloric's eyebrows rise at the description of the shadow demon walking in the day.
"Another...empowered foe? Like that chimera out in the battle? Or like...us?" he wonders aloud.
Darya nods. "Yes, the shadow demon Jestak warned us about. That checks out." she says, remembering the warning from the barbarian woman they'd allowed to leave.
What is your plan for the prisoners? And what do you want to do next?
OK. With this wing of the castle cleared it's easy to lead them to the parapet and turn them over. They descend ropes into the waiting arms of your soldiers, and you return to the main hall.
"...right. Let's get back to it."
Alexa starts leading the way to the officers' quarters.
She is ready!
With a nod, Darya draws radiance, falling into formation.
Arloric twirls his sword around a bit.
"Lead the way, Alexa!"