With the door shut, there wasn't much Serena could do from out in the hall - so, instead, she prepared to hurl a bit of magic if anything else popped out.
Balthasar gritted his teeth against the pain - he was only a hit or two away from falling. He shouted, "The wizard is out here! Open the door and get him!" He then lunged toward the caster with a cry, swinging his longsword.
Thrall hears the shouts and tries to reach the door and open it to help Balthazar. Meanwhile, he murmured a prayer to help him in combat.
Aria hesitates for a moment before turning out the door to assist Balthazar, assuming the goblin and the paladin have the hell hound taken care of. She then takes aim at the evil spellcaster and lets loose.
He hell hound snarls as it's prize is taken! It lashes out at Arianna and bites her! It's mouth closes over her entire shoulder and most of her chest! The good news is there isn't much blood. The bad news is she is literally smoking from the heat! (You take 15, 6 of which is fire).
In the other room, the caster comes under some major fire, but doesn't go down. He points his finger at Aria and utters something patently evil!
But Balthasar's proximity causes something to go wrong and the spell fails!
Doggy fights back and shakes off Bitey's pin! Arianna almost got bit in the process, but fate (and a slightly faulty GM memory) has other plans!
Serena, out in the hall and listening to the sounds inside, focused on her job - blasting any other threats that popped up out here. At least it sounded like things were going well in there...?
Ariana brings down the hound with Bitey's helpful distractions!
Balthasar presses the attack on the caster, trying to bring him down.
"To me! Rally!" he shouts as he swings his longsword.
Aria braces for whatever evil the spellcaster is about to do to her. When nothing happens, her resolve hardens and she unleashes another pair of bolts at the vile man.
Seeing the hellhound laid low Iolaire hurries through the doorway to attack the spellcaster threatening her companions.
As the hell hound resolves into the ether, Bitey is left disapointed.
"Bitey dinner go poof?"
Bitey sits down and contemplates why his food keeps disapearing...
Thrall nearly goes mad at the sight of the orc sorcerer. He lifts his mighty sword and tries to split him in two!
"Time to meet your ancestors, bastard!"
Thrall's charge clearly puts the caster on his back foot.
He casts and thrall feels his muscles lock up!
Party up!
Balthasar hadn't fallen yet, and this magic-user was clearly a threat to them all. Balthasar shouts, "Forward! Press the attack!" He suits action to words and swings his longsword at the caster.
Bitey, realizing something is off, comes out of his contemplation and bounces through the door in a tumble of limbs.
Thrall manages to resist the enchantment and strikes back at the evil spellcaster, not before moving to get the flank with Balthasar!
Balthasar and Trall's teamwork brings Balthasar's sword into contact, barely! The caster growls and gasps. He's on his last leg!
Seeing no other threats, Serena considered for a few moments - Magic Missile would probably drop the man - but decided to save the spell. It wasn't necessary to intervene here, and frankly, that would have been hogging glory. That was another thing her teachers had been quite firm about. Magic could sway the course of a battle and save countless lives, yes, and deserved to be treated as such - but if you got a big ego from it, you were becoming what you fought. Besides, quite honestly, most of the great casters were pretty darn vulnerable without others at their side. To demean them because they were different - more mundane than magical - was wrong. She was not going to fall into that trap of arrogance.
Instead... "You can do it!" she said, cheering them on.
Iolaire slides through the tangle of blades to drive Radiance firmly into the orc's side.
With the orc very distracted by the two men, Iolaire comes in from the side and stabs him cleanly. He gasps and falls dead!
Anevia is clearly shaken, to the point where she has trouble standing.
That was an old foe of my wife's. She didn't say much about him as they clashed before we met, but I heard he was a nasty piece of work. Thank you all. I owe you my life.
Balthasar drops to the ground on one knee, pain radiating through his body. "At least the bastard's finished. Whoever he was, he did a number on us. Does someone want to search him to see if he has anything on him to indicate if he's affiliated with the cultists? Anevia, it's obvious Irabeth isn't here. Do you think she could have left you a message to meet her somewhere? Perhaps you have a place that you can hide things?"
Iolaire hurries over to Balthasar, her vines emerging and wrapping themselves across the man's chest and pulsing brightly. "He was far too capable. We were fortunate."
As she heals Balthasar she looks up. "Who else is hurt?"
"We still have a lot of potions if need be." Serena added, mentally tallying the group's inventory. "We don't want to fight demons when we're hurt, so don't be too stingy with them."
Thrall looks at the corpse for a second, then turns to the others. "So, where do we take him now?" he asks, pointing at Anevia as if he wasn't just in front of him.
Iolaire does her best for Ariana's wounds.
Thanks to Iolaire's healing, the worst of Balthasar's wounds subsided, and he resumed his feet with a nod of thanks. "If someone has a potion to spare, I will take that as well. I don't want to tax our resources if we don't need to."
Anevia perks up at the mention of a hidden place. She asks for help and struggles to the bedroom. Once there she taps one of the floorboards just so and a small hidden stash is revealed. Inside is a note! She devours the words and starts weeping openly. They're at the Defender's Heart! She's ok! she proclaims. The passcode is Silverstrong!
Here, have these! She shoves six potions at you, three of Cure Moderate and three of Invisibility. Please, take them in payment for one more favor: I need to get to the Defender's Heart!
The Defender's heart is the largest inn in the city and would be an ideal fallback if the main barracks in the old city fell.
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Arianna looked up gratefully at Iolaire for her healing and nodded once to the paladin as she set aside any of the valuables from the orc.
"It would seem then that we have a destination..however.." She paused hesitantly looking over at these allies.
"I'm not going to be with you when you make the approach. It'll be best if I entered on my own a short time later." She added to the statement. It was best that they don't get tagged by a bunch of paladins as being in cahoots with her. Already there was no telling how they would react to one such as her having the password to their stronghold.
Anevia looks confused. Why?
The Ork had a potion of invisibility, wand of magic missile (CL 3rd, 11 charges), and a ranseur of the gargoyle along with 42 gp.
CL 5th. Price 4310 Cost 2310
Balthasar perks up when Anevia mentions that Irabeth is at the Defender's Heart. If she was there, then there were likely more crusaders than just them left. He nods. "Defender's Heart it is. Hopefully we'll find enough crusaders there to make the demons truly pay for attacking Kenabres."
At Arianna's words, Balthasar frowns. "Nonsense. If you arrive with Anevia and the rest of us, it's obvious how you got the password. Otherwise, you'll likely be interrogated about how you got it and much less warmly welcomed."
Balthasar takes one of the potions and drinks it, the rest of his wounds healing from the attack.
With the battle over, the adrenaline fades from her system. The pain of her wounds begins to set in. She grunts as she uses her bow to steady herself. Aria then takes one of the potions and drinks it down, opting for one of the smaller potions
As her body begins to knit itself back together, she turns to the other s. "I guess we have our destination then"
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Arianna seemed hesitant to say any more before she turned to Balthasar as he spoke and shifted on her feet a little bit. "That's.." she paused again, hesitant to reveal more. "Likely going to happen either way. And if I'm with you..they might distrust you as well. The information you have is too important for that. It's best if I approach on my own and they don't know that I helped you."
In an extremely calm voice. "Bitey think we have Limpy deliver info. She mating with super justice shiny pants lady... right?" Bitey thinks for a second... "Wait, how two girls make baby together?"
Anevia glances down to Bitey but quickly returns her attention back to Arianna. Her attraction is an identical twin of the first, Why?
Serena blinked slightly, her expression visibly echoing the question. She wasn't too worried about her own welcome, but if someone else was worried... well, she'd be giving anyone who complained a piece of her mind.