Karnelia investigated the tunnel, and found it led down into a small maze of passage. At least, that was the feeling she got when she walked saw the first junction, and the horribly mauled corpse at the end of it.
Ellara can smell which way people went - including a scent heavy with fear and expensive perfumes. It allows her to lead you into the maze, revealing the scene of a running battle. Several bodies have been caught by frankly horrifying traps, but a number of them also seem to have been beaten to death.
You pause in front of a pair of double doors. The trail leads inside, but you can also hear people shouting and a brutal, feral roar. Someone is fighting in there.
Ellara sniffed a few more times, then shrugged and shoved the doors open. One way or another, their little group probably wanted in on whatever was happening here, and she saw no reason to delay.
The scene paused for a moment as the participants of the fight stared at Ellara. Several more people dressed like the guard stood, trying to attack what was probably the biggest man you'd ever seen. They were having limited luck, mostly because he was killing them with contemptible ease, hands the size of your head crushing ribs and shattering skulls wherever blows landed. A feral gleam twinkles in his eyes, speaking of his berserk state.
"Hi." Ellara said brightly. "We'd appreciate it if you could stop fighting now, and we're quite prepared to use overwhelming force to enforce peace if we really need to." Her body shifted again - and this time she got distinctly bigger than the large man. Size spoke to a lot of people in a way other... suggestions... didn't. "I really would prefer to do this in a way that ensures nobody else has to get hurt."
"Yes, stand down, because we have a monster too. Then kindly explain what's going on."
Kiyomi calls out in a voice more imposing that anybody would expect from her small size.
The attackers are intimidated into something resembling confusion more than surrender, but the massive berserker is not.
Three more of the attackers collapsed in a heap from hideous, crushing blows. "Pro...tect..." The words were almost feral, barely legible, but it was clear the man was here with a cause.
Well, at least bigger targets were harder to miss - though bulkier bodies actually slowed her down, and Ellara shrunk back to a more normal size before pitching a blast through the air and towards the berserker. If reason wasn't going to work, well, she'd just have to back it up with force...
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"D-don't kill him! We don't know what's going on here!" Lady Karnelia calls out. She begins chanting a curse, invoking spirits to restrain the berserker from within his mind.
"Sister," Karnelia whispers, "We need your help!"
Little Sister creeps out of the shadows, intimidated by the colossal man, but still tries her best to strike.
"Hmmm... Alright then. I'm pretty sure I know what's going on, but, alright. My money's still on us having to take him down, though we can try nonlethally first if you like."
Julie moves to the front of her crew, given Ellara's now smaller size, and prepares do defend herself.
Ellara's blast sailed by the surprisingly agile monster. Little Sister also failed to strike.
He also proved to be surprisingly resistant to magic.
Turning his fevered gaze towards you, he starts to move with a soft grunt, apparently unconcerned. Suddenly, with surprising speed, he darts forwards and attacks Julie.
Darting forward, Ellara jabbed at the big man with her claws - and more importantly, she was aiming right for one of his weak points. One of the benefits of being a shapeshifter was that she had a pretty good idea of what worked and what didn't for the average form - and she'd put that knowledge to good use with the development of a useful martial technique.
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Lady Karnelia glares at their foe from afar. "I don't like to do this, but I don't have a choice here... DROP TO THE FLOOR!"
With a commanding voice unlike anything the party has heard from her before, Lady Karnelia brings forth otherworldly influence.
Meanwhile, relieved that she isn't being targeted, Little Sister maintains her frantic assault, and steps into a flanking position across from Ellara.
Kiyomi will hurl a knife of force at the large attacker.
= 12
Julie barely manages to turn the attack into a glancing blow that deflects off her breastplate. If any part of her had been less focused or enhanced, she would have been struck.
"Ok, I am less on board plan nonlethal. If your next spell doesn't work.."
If her strike missed, Julie would create a copycat of herself.
The rain of blows, especially Ellara's, staggered the massive fighter. His eyes flared in surprise for a moment before bloodrage focused within them once more.
For a moment it looked as though he was going to slide to the floor...but instead sucked in a huge breath. The air in Karnelia's lungs began to move out in response...
Karnelia resists the magical assault, thankful for previous experiences with vile spells of the sort.
The moment after the man exhaled, Ellara swiped out with both her claws-
-but failed to come anywhere close to actually striking the man this time, despite her best efforts. It... might have been time to rethink her strategy, and perhaps try something different.
...is what could have happened. Reality, however, was rather nicer than the worst-case scenario that flicked through Ellara's mind.
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for
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Since he won't drop, she keeps up the assault.
= 14
The light of rage faded from the huge man's eyes, as did his size. Staggering slightly, the man - still tall, heavily muscled and fairly angry - glared. "Pretty girls to kill her? Not while I breathe."
Moving away, he scooped a blade from the floor and staggered towards the door at the far end.
Lady Karnelia calls for Little Sister to stand down, hoping her companions would do the same. As suspected, this man must have been the third bodyguard they had heard about. Hopefully, they would be able to get a word in with him now.
Ellara's eyes moved towards the other outsiders here, curious about what they were planning on... and while she was ready to hurl another bolt of energy if someone else decided to get violent, it really was better to try and limit the number of bodies.
Despite the shape he was in, Julie was unable to trip the man, and he reached the door with the blade. Leaning against it, he aimed the sword...at the lock, with the obvious intent of destroying it.
The blade glanced off, inflicting only cosmetic damage to the face plate. With a curse that blistered the air, the man re-aimed and prepared to strike again.
With a shrug, Ellara reached back and grabbed hold of some energy, then hurled it like a bolt of lightning at the fleeing man.
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It wasn't as strong of a blast as it could have been - the Shapeshifter could most definitely have hit harder, but she was trying to avoid killing him. Knocking him unconscious, though? That was something she was okay with doing.
"I... think we could try to talk to him instead of fighting. It's clear that he thinks we're here to harm Her Highness, not protect her."
"Talk faster." Julie goes to attack again.
The two blows land and drop the massive berserker before he can shatter the lock. The blade drops from his hand and slowly, ever so slowly, he drops to his knees before hitting the ground with a thud.
"...Anyone else?" Ellara asked, eyeing the rest of the room. "I've got plenty more if need be." A few glimmers of magic could be seen on the ends of her fingers. She didn't usually threaten people into submission, but... well, she wanted them to know that any further violence was going to get the same response.
Lady Karnelia immediately rush to the fallen man. If her understanding of the situation was right, he was on their side, just mistaken.
She tends to his wounds, and calls for his spirit to remain amongst the living.
"Well, that's the fun part over.." Julie sheathed her blade and made her way over to the lock to attempt knocking and then opening the door.
Karnelia was able to stabize the man, so that while unconcious, he would live.
There was no reply to knocking, and the door itself was locked. The idea behind the Berserkers attacks had clearly been to make it so the lock couldn't be picked or opened.
"Pfft. Want through?" Ellara asked Julie. One thing Ellara prided herself on was the ability to get practically anywhere, and she'd yet to meet a door she couldn't get past if she really wanted to. Of course, breaking it down was so blah... but she could do that if needed, too.
"Specifically, I want through without making a complete barbarian of myself." Julie said, pulling back a few rogue strands of hair, and the blood on her clothes and blade slowly starting to clean itself.
The door remained studiously door-like.
"Just you wait, door... Someday I'll have a spell of opening or unlocking or something." Julie whispers at the door as she gazes at it sitting there all innocent like.
Ellara looked more amused than anything else, but energy gathered into an aura around her hand as she cut at the lock.
Little Sister manifests sheepishly from the shadows surrounding the room and whispers to her tether.
Nodding Lady Karnelia approaches the others hesitantly, then works up the courage to object before Ellara strikes.
"Could we... scout beyond the door first? If Her Young Majesty is hidden here, speaking to her before breaking in may be wiser..."
She breathes for a moment, expecting to be spoken over.
"Little Sister could pass through the door and see if the princess is in there."
"Hm? Well, I don't mind." Ellara answered. They'd stopped the other guy from leaving, which had been the main point - she had no problem with any of their group going through.
Beyond the door is a short passage. Even Little Sisters featherlike steps are enough to set off a trap - a bucket of liquid from the ceiling makes the floor sizzle - but she reaches the end of the corridor to find another door. This one, however, she cannot pass through.
Little Sister silently inspects the door, quite curious to see a surface she cannot cross through intangibility. She tentatively tries to pass through the walls surrounding the door. Perhaps whoever protected the door failed to account for them.
If so, she peeks into the following room, careful not to make herself too obvious.
The wall remained oddly sturdy. Clearly, magics or materials meant this room was no simple matter to enter.
On the other hand, the door itself looked open, with no obvious lock. The protection was likely against those traveling incorporeally to spy. It was, however, heavy and large.
Little Sister returns to the group, dismayed. She whispers to Lady Karnelia.
"It seems the door beyond this one is warded against incorporeal beings. We'll need a more direct approach."
As the Little Sister returned, Ellara shrugged slightly - and then her form abruptly turned into rock and stone as she sunk into the ground and began to Burrow underneath it, fully intending to simply peek inside before deciding what to do next. It may have been warded against ghosts, but most people didn't ward against traveling right through the rock itself...