Saoirse blinks rapidly as she is suddenly plunged into darkness. Gripping Radiance tightly, Saoirse whispers "Please give me light to see my enemies with," towards Radiance.
Radiance glows bright gold as Saoirse steps forward to swing at a cultist. Although the room is still dimly lit in the immediate area, she seems unaffected.
A brief scream is heard as the cultist falls to the floor with a gaping wound.
The leftmost abrikandilu demon screeches vilely at the revealing of Radiance. It throws the severed head of a paladin at Saoirse.
The hard forehead connects with Saoirse's head and bits of flesh and gore are left on her from the contact. She somehow manages to stay focused despite the grisly missile, only to see the same demon advancing on her.
The two cultists next to Saoirse try to stab at her. The first misses her but the second finds a fleshy spot to strike.
<-
Thom crouches low, throwing his weight behind his shield and slamming it into the under-side of the table in an attempt to bury the second demon with it. "Block the exits!"
Then he continues his advance, trying to threaten the demon, the opponents around him, and keep from opening himself up to attack at the same time.
Aero moves into the room, his flag flapping as he holds the doorway they came though. He looks at the tiefling by the door and tries to help Thom disable him.
The tiefling by the door staggers for a moment and grips his head, but shakes away the pain. Lucius' bolt clatters uselessly against the far wall.
Thom's quick thinking has him sprinting and vaulting the table at the door, but the three tieflings standing take a swipe at him, the demon not being to reach him over the table.
All but one of them misses, that one finding a hole in Thom's armor and striking hard. The demon against the far wall, close to the door, stands back up.
It screeches briefly but then smiles a mutilated wicked smile and chants something in a screeching voice.
Saoirse doesn't even seem to notice. The last standing tiefling against the eastern wall backs up a step and touches the upturned table. Darkness seems to radiate out again.
Nebbin!
Barely able to see, Nebbin slams his hammer at the tiefling in front of him, but ends up just flailing wildly in the darkness.
The tiefling that Saoirse struck down gurks once then stops breathing.
Lucius reloads his crossbow with another cold iron bolt as a move action, and spends his standard action to draw the magic missile wand.
Staggering under the combined strain of the Life Link with Saoirse and the assault from the cultist, Thom gasps as he steps further past the melee, putting his back against the northern wall. His morningstar clatters to the floor as he draws out one of the wands given him by Aravashnial, touching it to the table to dispel one of the areas of darkness.
Saoirse grimaces as she tilts her head to try and not take the decapitated head missile directly across her vision. When she looks back up her face is splattered with blood across her forehead, eyes, and left cheek. Barely noticing the wound that blossoms across her shoulder from a cultists lucky strike Saoirse lifts her sword into an upward slash across the next cultists torso.
Still finding it difficult to see, even with Thom's magic, Nebbin swings wildly again, a rising panic growing in his chest.
We're all going to die here...
The darkness dissipates somewhat, the room still sunk in dim light. Saoirse uses Radiance to brilliant effect, dropping the tiefling to the ground in a pool of blood. Nebbin, somewhat taken aback by the magical and demonic goings on, misses the tiefling he aims for. The demon by the doorway bites at Thom as he draws the wand out to use...
The creature manages a brutal bite to Thom's shoulder and neck, somehow missing the major arteries, but the wound looks gruesome.
Aero steps forward to try and drop the tiefling who is making his way to clear the upturned table blocking the door.
He scores a well placed blow on the evil creature. The demon facing Saoirse hops forward and tries mightily to destroy her.
It catches a claw under the opening in her armor's armpit and sinks it's teeth into the arm holding Radiance. The bite marks on her arm look ragged and disgusting.
The tiefling next to Saoirse hops to the opposite side of her as the demon moved in and tries to stick his shortsword into her.
At the last moment, the attacks from the demon forcing her backwards, the tiefling's well aimed strike is turned by Saoirse's armor.
The demon by Thom tries to rush him down.
Thom strikes down with his morningstar at the creature as it attempts to bull rush him...
The weapon strikes true, stopping most of the charge. Thom is pushed back a few steps still.
Lucius blasts the demon harrying Thom with magic missiles.
White crusader tabard stained with dark orc blood from multiple wounds, Thom struggles to recover his footing after the onslaught. Fear and panic mix with orc rage and some kind of divine fury as he drops the wand. Teeth gritted behind his mask, he unsheathes his longsword and puts as much strength as he can into a wild slash.
Seeing Thom in trouble, Nebbin steps forward and slams his hammer into the nearest demon, hoping he can put them down before they can hurt his friends any more.
Aero calls upon Fortune's Favor again and swings away.
Saoirse easily sidesteps the tiefling's attack behind her and she lashes out at the demon.
But she loses her footing briefly as she steps on the severed head that was thrown at her.
The demon tries to capitalize on her lapse...
But barely manages to catch a claw on her other forearm.
Thom and Lucius' combined physical and magical assault cause the demon to fall to the ground, drool and blood pooling together.
Aero's attack from behind also drops the tiefling in front of him.
Nebbin swings his mighty hammer to help Saoirse, attacking the tiefling behind her. The creature drops after a sickening thump permeates the air.
"LEAVE! HER! ALONE!" Nebbin yells as he fells the final demons with a vicious blow of his hammer.
Thom flashes a look of gratitude over at Lucius as his attacker crumples. Then, despite the screaming of his injuries, he steps behind the remaining threat. His wild, wide swing gives testament to the severity of his wounds.
"I'd listen to the man, demon filth!"
If the demon is still standing by his turn, Lucius will blast it with the wand. If it is not, then he will unload his crossbow and and stow the wand.
The combined might from the rest bring the final demon down into a convulsing pile. You don't hear any sounds that the rest of building has been alerted.
Nothing more than the 6 crossbows, 30 bolts, and 6 shortswords on the tieflings is here.
Lucius draws the sharp knife the mongrelfolk cultists were using as a 'cleaver'.
"Thom, Saorise, see to your wounds. Aero, help me finish off these curs."
Lucius will slit the tieflings' and demons' throats, ensuring they don't get up again.
Nebbin looks around.
"What should I do?"
"Watch the door?" Thom gasps as his energy finally gives out ... depositing him on one knee on the ground. He nods absently to Lucius's instruction, letting his blade crash to the floor as he fishes out another wand. "And crush anything—aah—that wanders through."
"I thought *gasp* I was *grunt* a goner," he forces out from behind his mask, which swings over to Saoirse, then Nebbin, then Aero and Lucius, "But that was *wheeze* really impressive, guys. It's an honor to fight beside you here."
He touches his side gingerly where the cultist's sword slid so painfully through armor, cloth, and flesh, then spends a minute delicately guiding the wand around the bleeding wound.
Working his right arm in a circle to test the newly-knit muscles and skin on that side, he offers the wand to Saoirse. "Here."
He watches Lucius finish his grisly work, then stands and collects his weapons and wands ... which he left strewn about the small battleground. When he picks up the wand of Daylight, he holds it up for Aero and Lucius. "Would one of you like to hold onto this? I'm glad I had it, but I wish I could have been fighting instead of countering their filthy magic.
Aero will take the wand of Daylight as he finishes off the sleeping foes.
Saoirse slumps back against the blood slicked wall as she looks down at her hand, grimacing at the sight of her mangled arm drenched in her own blood. Saoirse closes her eyes for a moment and trying to catch her breath, says "That... was... scary."
Sensing Thom offering something over to her, Saoirse opens her eyes and looks down, her undamaged arm holding her mangled one tightly. Seeing the wand, Saoirse shakes her head "I'm sorry... I um... never learned to use those Thom." Despite the situation, a blush forms on Saoirse's sweat and blood stained face.
"No problem," Thom grunts as he begins running the wand over Saoirse's injuries.
... after the lion's share of a minute, her wounds are completely healed, though the lingering filth of the rat-demon's curse remains on her skin. Thom regards it for a second, then at his own hideous injuries.
Thom shrugs helplessly at the disgusting wounds before touching her on the arm with a nod . Then he makes sure his gear is all in place as he gives the room one last dark look, "We should keep moving," he rasps, "See what other trouble we can get into."
He moves to the northern door, looking at Nebbin. "We all clear to move on?"
"I think so."
Nebbin shrugs and, still holding onto his hammer with one hand, opens the door.
With morningstar in one hand and flag in the other Aero peeks forward to see what's behind the door Nebbin opened.
This small chamber is free of dust. A holy symbol of Iomedae hangs unmolested on the wall above a weapon rack filled with swords, crossbows, and spears. Three wooden dummies wear pristine suits of armor. A shelf holds several leather quivers some with arrows and some with bolts, each stamped with a golden sun. Two silver shields hang from pegs on the wall.
The weapon rack contains three cold iron longswords, two cold iron shortswords, two heavy crossbows, a composite longbow (+2 Str), a masterwork cold iron heavy mace, two cold iron longspears, 50 cold iron crossbow bolts, 100 cold iron arrows, a +1 longsword, 5 +1 holy bolts, and a bolt of evil outsider slaying.
The armor dummies hold two sets of masterwork chainmail and a +1 breast plate emblazoned with Iomedae’s holy symbol.
The two heavy steel shields are both marked with the holy symbol of Iomedae. One is a masterwork shield, and the other is a +1 blinding shield.
Aero will call upon Fortune's favor and check for traps having been fooled once.
"Does anyone else see that?" Nebbin whispers. "It's like a blue door. I think it's OK. Maybe it goes straight to Iomedae?"
Thom looks past Nebbin into the room. His eyebrows—or what eyebrows he would have were they not burned off and/or behind a mask—rise in surprise. "Huh."
"Why didn't they despoil this room, as well?" He looks over at Aero and Lucius, his raspy voice pitched low and heavy with skepticism, "Any magics that seem out of place here?"
Lucius will scan the room with detect magic, wary of potentially harmful magical effects - which may have either deterred despoiling or been left as a trap by the cultists.
With the room apparently safe, Nebbin enters and looks around. Once everyone has claimed the weapons he wants, he looks more closely at the blue glowing door.
"I guess we should go in here?" he asks.
He listens to see if he can hear anything.
Saoirse steps into the room with trepidation at first, but a feeling of calm settles over her as she sees all the weapons and symbols blessed by her Goddess. "Iomedae provides sanctuary in the strangest of places."
Stepping up next to the dummy holding the breastplate, Saoirse touches the armor with her gloved hand to check it for flaws before nodding and picking up the armor from the dummy carefully. Without a second thought Saoirse quickly pulls the breastplate up and unsnaps the leather straps keeping it together and begins placing it over her worn chain. Whispering a short prayer to Iomedae as she works, "May this armor protect me as well as your grace, Inheritor."
Thom follows Nebbin and Saoirse into the room. His paranoia fades a bit as he runs an eye over the equipment; he even swaps out a handful of bolts as well as one of the thick, steel shield.
When Saoirse begins upgrading her armor, his months of training kicks in. He unthinkingly sets his new shield down to free both hands to help the paladin secure the straps and buckles of her new breastplate. With a few final tugs on a particularly stiff leather joint, he steps back and—when she looks over at him—gives her a gear-check thumbs up.
Then he looks over at Nebbin as reclaims his shield, "My mom always said 'if you're not moving forward, you're backing up'." Though, right after saying it, his visage drops and he continues in muttered orc.
He shakes his head, though, and looks ready to continue.