As Lynn jogs a head, she slows as she comes to the final house before a wide lane. Lynn looks around the corner and sees a crudely made stage (a bunch of wagons pushed together), there are 4 people on the stage in various bits of armor and wielding weapons that they don't look like they can use.
Flying above them is 2 demons.
The Demons are throwing small balls of fire at the people, laughing as the humans club each other with the weapons. There are other bodies laying on the ground around the "Stage", the bodies have deep gashes in them.
The wounds on the bodies have swelling and puss coming out of them, the claws must be poisoned
"Hey you flying turds. Come over here and let me have some fun too." Lynn shouts while moving on.
Don comes up and snarls the the nasties. He aims his crossbow and will fire.
4/5 stamina.
Don's shot hits the flying demon but the thick skin deflects the bolt with out any visible damage. One of the creatures flies down to the the humans and bites into the neck of a terrified woman, the woman screams as blood runs down her neck.
The second demon still in the air flaps towards the party, it cocks its arm back and throws a small ball of fire at Don.
The Demon on the Woman flies up, the woman continues to scream as she puts hands to the bite on her neck.
Lynn moves over to the demon that is down on her level and stabs it.
Don drops his crossbow and draws his hammer, getting ready to strike at anything that approaches.
Lynn slices into the lower flying demon, it squeals with pain as the cold iron bites into it. The Demon hisses at Lynn green globs of spittle fall from its mouth.
The Demon will withdraw avoiding and AoO, flying back up into the air just out of reach.
Iko will Close with the Wounded woman, his quick steps get him there with no issues.
Tink Directs SteelGate to assist Iko, TInk will move up behind Lynn. Mumbling a few words as his magic flows into her. Lynn Starts to feel her muscles bulge and her body get larger.
The first Demon flying Just out of reach of Lynn cocks its arm and throws a ball of fire at Lynn now.
After it releases the ball of fire, it notices that Lynn is getting Larger and it did not fly high enough
Don gets out his oil of bless weapon and dumps it on his crossbow bolts and then reloads.
"Looks like you're out of luck." Lynn tells the wounded demon with an evil grin. With her big size and the reach of 20 foot the poor creature is to close to evade the wrath of the righteous.
Lynn slices the small demon in half, each side splatting onto the ground with a sickening plop. The second demon seeing that the fun is over flies off into the distance.
There are 2 women and 2 males in various stages of bleeding and bruising, the woman with the bite in her neck needs medical attention.
You manage to stem the bleeding
You give the woman a chance to fight off the poison
The others have just minor wounds but all look terrified, Tink and SteelGate are a bit unsettling to them.
"Hey, come back you sissy!" Lynn rants. She turns to the wounded and tries to patch them up. Ripping a stripe off the dress of the woman is easy, but bandaging them with her large hands is a challenge.
But it works quite well.
With the poisoned woman she does some bloodletting at the poisoned wound before binding this one too.
The poison wracks the woman's body, you see muscles wasting before your eyes.
The woman's back arches as the poison continues to attack her.
After a few tense moments the woman subsides and falls asleep.
"Is she now recovering, or did she die?" Lynn asks noone in particular.
Don fires
Don's shot flies wide as the Demon moves with all haste East towards the World Wound.
The other 3 survivors are 2 men and another woman, they have scrapes and some bruising but nothing life threatening.
"Thank you for driving them off, they killed many others before it was "our turn" to battle the demons." The man points at the other man and the woman on the ground who have ash on their face to make them look evil.
The lone awake woman recognizes Horgus as he gets closer, "M m m master Horgus, I see you survived. We tried to keep them away but they were to many, the guards fled." The woman begins to weep.
"Seara, it is fine, I don't expect a cook to battle demons." Horgus approaches the woman but does not touch her.
"So - onwards to your house?" Lynn asks Horgus.
"Where did the guards flee to?" SteelGate asks
Tink investigates the surrounding area for any magic listening to the conversation
Horgus points to a sizable mansion that has been relatively unaffected by the destruction of the rich quarter. He falls back to stand with Aravashnial and Aniva.
"Let us move on then. We are vulnerable out in the open like this."
Indeed. Don keeps watch on the skies as they continue on to Horgus' house.
As Horgus still prefers to not take the lead she makes fun of him "Shall we kick in the door, or will you unlock it once we're there?"
She walks over to and onto the premise of the manson and to the main entrance.
The guard just fled, I didn't see where they went, I did send some of the others in Mr. Horgus' employ to look for him." Says the woman
Horgus stomps up beside Lynn, drawing out a ring of keys from a side pouch. He goes to unlock the door but sees that it is not closed and it appears to already be "kicked in."
Horgus pushes the door open fully and the smell of rot and death come out to assault Lynn and Horgus. Taking a deep breath off to the side, Horgus steps into his house, a few bodies mutilated like those outside lay in the front entrance hall.
Don steps in to 'slice the pie' and make sure there are no other beasts lurking around.
The house appears to have been looted of most things, there are broken picture frames, drawers that would have held silver ware are on the floor broken but missing their contents.
Horgus leads the way to a stair case the the basement, taking a lantern and lighting it Horgus proceeds down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs you have to take a hard right, after doing so the group sees a large wall. The wall has a combination lock on it and a giant gear feed wheel that looks like it helps with opening the door.
Horgus deftly does the combination to the look and spins a handle and opens the door with ease. As he opens the door you can see that the metal is dark like the glaive that Lynn holds in her hands. Once inside stores of food and other items can be see. A few chests, that appear to be locked sit in one corner, a small armory in the other.
Your own hidey hole. The walls are protected correct?
"They are cold Iron reinforced, I own the Cold Iron Mine. After the crusaders weapons were all made I had this done. More weapons were going to be started being made this month but It appears not." Horgus goes over to the chests, unlocking one and counting out something.
He returns after a few minutes and hands each each of you 100pp, "As I promised." Horgus then goes to a plain looking chair and sits down.
Thank you very much, you will be secure here for now?
Horgus seems to have his 'interact' toggle switched off, showing that this sidequest is now at an end.
"I should be yes, I have stores here for 2 weeks. Come get me if you can find a secure place and more people." Horgus closes his eyes.
"I'm sorry for the destruction of your house." Lynn tells as she sees the furniture broken the art destroyed and the silverware stolen. It breaks her heart to see such beauty ended by laying waste to it.
Don will head back topside, closing the big door behind them. So where to next?
Lynn is not ready to leave yet. "How about we remove the corpses that cause this stink from the house, lock the door and take a rest? No?"
"If not there is our blind Riftwarden to return somewhere and Aniva to bring back to her wife."
We had a rest not too long ago at the clothing shop, we aren't even hurt.
"I mean a rest like a night of sleep. Not a nap before dinner. The last Rest we had was when we left the mongrels on the subterranean island. But if you feel like it, press on." Lynn replies.
Looking around she adds "But our travel companions are sleeping while standing there with their eyes open. No one volunteered so far to be the next one to be brought home."
Iko bows a thanks after receiving the platinum.
"I have never had this many riches before. I can't even imagine what I would use it for." he says as he stores it gently away.
Aniva is indeed sleeping in a chair, curled up with a blanket on. Aravashnial is sitting on the floor beside Aniva, meditating.
As the group comes back upstairs Aravashnial "looks" around the room.
"We are in the Noble District? I wish to return to Blackwing Ruins, it is in the southern most portion of the city. I feel we have passed the area already but it is where I have my things and others that I may know."
The Elf has changed the bandages on his face recently.
Very well, we can take Aravashnial next after some shuteye, I will keep first watch
As evening sets in the noises in the city get louder, some screaming can be heard from far off and cries of pain and pleasure as well. Each of you take a turn for watching.
Aniva takes first watch since she already took a nap, she will wake each of you in turn as you need to be awoken.
In the morning you find that Horgus has brought out some food but has retreated back to his vault.
You can proceed back the way you came or you can go back through the city to the south which will be time consuming.
We'll head to where Aravashnial needs to. Don packs up and helps everyone head out.
"Before we go over the rift in the city again - where do we need to go after that?" Lynn asks over the breakfast.
"North, my home is by Defenders Heart which is in the norther portion of the city." Anvia says from an expensive looking arm chair.
"So it's two more times passing the rift. Let's go then." Lynn tells and follows Don.
Tink nods and shouts over, "Blue picked the cloth to use." as he shrugs his shoulders with a small smile
The group has to go back by the "stage of death" the other who were there have long fled and the bodies of the deceased left to the vultures. As you approach the deep rend in the ground, you can hear shouting coming from a building across the way and north.
Lynn looks at the bird and then at Tink. She lifts her arm and sniffs her armpit to check if it's that bad already. "What's that for?"
Tink looks at her in confusion and points to her weapon which is caked in demon blood, "To look after your things." he says as if the answer is obvious