Aron immediately charges through the gap, shield braced against incoming attacks and sword raised to strike the cultists as they try to hold the line against the crusader army.
Aron charges into the fray, aiming at a ferocious looking cultist in green and black armor. The cultist warrior raises his scythe and shoves the smaller man back.
Hearing Markus' call, Sosiel grasps his glaive in both hands and charges at the defensive line. He is not fast enough to break past it, so he would just have to fight his way through with the rest of the army. The cleric meets the cultists with a spinning slash, emphasizing form over power.
Meanwhile, Ary ushers Libi II onwards, galloping past the melee and towards the summoning. She catches up with Nurah and Annabelle, focusing her motes inwards as she rides.
Irabeth is up!
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With the wounded stabilized, and little in the way of cultists rising up to fight within the crater, Irabeth momentarily turns towards the center of the encampment. From the sound of battle coming from over the many tents blocking her view, she quickly realises that with the weight of her armor it will take her too long to reach the battle. So, she goes to get her horse.
Irabeth searches for her horse and after a few moments of searching through the crowds for it, calls it towards her and re-mounts it.
Nurah is up!
Annabelle takes a deep breath, focuses on the closest cultist and drives her glaive down towards it while her mount leaps up and drops its hooves down before lunging forward to bite.
Nurah guides her mount around as she begins to dig out her sling. There was precious little time left, so apart from informing the others, she needed to do everything she could to buy time. Turning around she calls out to Annabelle and the others who were coming into range. "We need to take out the master summoner and one other, or the three others in each of the two portals remaining!" she cries out. "The masters are the furthest out from the center of the three summoning circles!"
She points towards the two masters as she begins to ride towards the one who was maintaining the fully open portal. Aiming the mount directly for him, she turns around and fires off a sling bullet at the one maintaining the partially opened portal, hoping for a lucky shot. "For the Crusader Queen!" she cries out as her mount barrels on a collision course with the summoner.
The High Priest, an imposingly tall man whose face is obscured by an immense helmet in the shape of a stag beetle's head doesn't seem to notice the intruders running into his domain. He stands at the northern most apex of three immense summoning circles inscribed into the ground in the shape of a triangle - intricate Nurah charges her phantom steed past the open portal and into him, turning and firing a pebble at the other high priest - it bounces harmlessly off of her robes, clearly she is wearing some sort of armor underneath.
The High Priest raises a hand, repelling Nurah's ghostly steed at the last moment. The creature rears wildly, the little halfling holding on for dear life. Annabelle charges in beside of her, swinging her glaive heavily into the cultist leader with great vigor. The cultist grunts, falling back a step away from her - his cultist minions continue to chant, holding the portal open, but without his contribution to the channeling it flickers in and out of reality. Beyond the portal, within the filth, something starts to move under the water.... and nearby, the eastern portal slams open, like some monstrous eye, revealing the same horrific catacomb as the other.
"Yes! Yes! Keep chanting! They're almost here!" He cackles. "You're all going to die! You're too late!"
And with that he waves a hand and a roaring wall of flames erupts across the tents in between him and the rest of the army, catching all of the tents within aflame. It roars 20' high. A fitting final gambit... hopelessly outnumbered, the defensive line crumples beneath the crusaders' might, with not a single man or woman left standing, except for the three psychics and a handful of cultists with axes, left stranded on the other side of the wall. The cultists form a defensive front around the vulnerable casters, anticipating the arrival of the army soon.
With Commander Bishop on the other side of the fiery wall, the crusaders turn to her lieutenant for guidance. "Chevalier," Captain Vica approaches Irabeth, with a salute. "Orders?"
Round 10!
Markus is up!
"This portal is vulnerable!" Nurah yells back towards the others. "You just need to take out one of the other summoners!"
Markus takes a deep breath, his hands shaking with a sudden chill. Rime builds up over his fingers, and his breath comes out in a great billowing cloud as he says the magic words - "fragor glaciem!"
A burst of cold assaults the wall for a moment, beating down the flames momentarily before the heat of the wall extinguishes the ice. "Quick, if anybody can - freeze the wall!"
Aron is up!
Seeing that Markus' cold spell was not quite enough to snuff out the flames, Sosiel reaches for the rolled-up scroll at his belt.
"I'm going to try to dispel the lot of it!" he shouts to the others over the sound of roaring flames. "The rest of you need to get through there!"
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"Captains, prepare to lead your troops through as soon as the wall disappears. Cavalry first! Irabeth yells over the troops. "We must defeat the summoners before they finish their ritual."
"I'm ready."
Sosiel is up!
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Sosiel unfurls the scroll and starts to read the magical text inscribed on it, murmuring the words under his breath. His eyes flick back and forth between the scroll and wall of fire, designating it as the target of his spell. The words on the scroll shed golden light, before abruptly vanishing from the parchment. A wave of abjuration magic washes over the flaming barrier... and accomplishes absolutely nothing.
"I'm afraid there's a problem with your order, Lieutenant," Sosiel says to Irabeth humorlessly, a frown tugging at his mouth. "We're going to need to find another way around it. Or through."
Aron is up!
Irabeth had known that the spell might not work, so she had already formed a plan.
"Ser Markus, how long before the first demon is summoned?" she calls to the wizard.
Markus just kind of shrugs helplessly. "I don't know why everyone excepts me to know! It's not like I'm an expert on planar rifts. Ask Aravashnial."
"Not very long, judging by the smell," Sosiel offers in his not-so-expert opinion.
"No time for questions," Aron mutters. He ducks his head low and charges forward, keeping his head covered with his shield to protect his eyes from the searing flames. He endures the blaze and does his best to drive his sword in to the heart of one of the summoners. "This ends now."
Aron charges through the flames, aiming for a gap between the burning tents - though the magical shield around him dissipates, preventing him from being protected by his love, he runs fast enough that the fires ultimately don't hurt him more than some surface burns. As he emerges on the other side he comes into view of the summoning ritual... his heart skips a beat as he sees that one of the portals is fully open, with something squirming around within the murky water in its depths. The stench is nigh unbearable here - but there is one hope - the northern portal flickers in and out of existence, as the three summoner acolytes left in the channeling struggle to maintain the spell without the aid of their mentor.
Ary is up!
Ary slams her shield into the nearest cultist, seeking to force him out of position from the summoning circle. She wasn't really certain how all of this stuff was supposed to work, but she figured everything had its own, set purpose. Directly after her hammerblow to the enemy she shifts her position to be opposite Aron, her stride quick and determined. "Bring down the summoners. Even one Hezrou could be catastrophic!" she calls out, "Markus, if the wall can be doused, have the clerics make a deluge!"
Ary's shield slams into one of the acolytes chanting at the eastern circle, sending him flying 15' feet away and colliding into Aron's shield. The eastern circle flickers once, but otherwise remains steady, with still three other cultists chanting to maintain the circle.
Meanwhile, past the wall of fire and burning tents, Irabeth does not respond to Markus, not because she was mad, but because there was simply no time.
"Commander Cobelen, divide your men in two groups, one goes circles around west, the other east. As soon as you reach the summoning circles, take care of the cultists. Captain Halse, you will be in charge of circling out of the camp and entering through the other gate to strike the summoners. If the Everbright Crusaders cannot pass because of the flames, you will be our last hope."
The captains nod and salute. "Yes, Chevalier."
"If the ritual is successful, your orders are to withdraw immediatly. All infantry is hereby ordered to withdraw with the wounded. If the summoning succeeds, your orders are to scatter and rejoin at the agreed location. These are your orders!"
"Now, all of you, remember this! Commander Bishop went ahead, knowing full well the dangers, but fully intent on making sure that no demon could tear our ranks apart!"
"Sosiel, we might need you to heal the wounded infantry so they can withdraw as fast as possible."
With this said, Irabeth utters a short prayer and spurs her mount toward the wall of flame, intent on passing through. As she approaches, her horse rears up and whinnies, clearly terrified of the magical wall of flames. The half-orc paladin is forced to dismount and trudge through the flames... burdened by her heavy gear, she is much slower than Aron, and is covered in superficial burns from where her red-hot plate armor started searing into her skin.
Nurah is up!
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Annabelle and Blossom wheel around, confident that the high priest was distracted enough by the glaive-slash down his chest. They turn to the next-nearest summoner, lunging in to attack him.
Ary turns around and slams Faith into one of the acolytes chanting at the northern circle. He goes flying into the air, landing on the ground with a thud. The remaining acolytes struggle to keep the portal open... whatever is in the water surges forward, and an enormous, horrible, muck-covered hand emerges into the material plane for a moment before the portal winks out of existence entirely.
Nurah is up!
Nurah audibly breathes a sigh of relief. Too close for comfort! she thinks as she turns her sights towards the final ring. Swinging her mount around from the high priest, she closes in on the final open circle. Charging at one of the lesser cultists, she barrels towards him as if she were going to trample him. Calling out to the cultist and working magic into her words, she yells at him, "Look out, I can't stop! Dive out of the way or you'll get run over!" The words carry the weight of a suggestion not so easily ignored, and an apparently reasonable one at that.
Unfortunately for Nurah, the cultist is so focused on his work that he doesn't seem to even hear her.
Annabelle is up!
Annabelle charges past Nurah and lodges her glaive soundly into the nearest summoner's body. He screams, staggering for a moment - the final remaining portal flickers once, but the remaining three cultists focus harder and it re-stabilizes. Deep within the portal, in the distance, an enormous toad-like head emerges from the water. It blinks several times, its nictitating membranes clearing the sludge from its vision as it peers at the open portal curiously. The water surrounding it is disturbed as larvae frantically swim away from the horrible creature.
The high priest curses as yet another summoning circle is destroyed. He steps a few paces forward and quickly surveys the situation, evaluating the numerous threats against his last summoning...then barks out, "Gashdoshi Thrishoshum Bishop. I hat noki throshi ugh bi throkhogum skushitolka."
He raises a hand and fires at Annabelle with a ray of light from his open palm. Annabelle screams, the blast ripping a hole straight through her body. She falls to the ground, as Blossom simply vanishes into the air, her tether to this world broken, her master, dead.
Fortunately, as long as the body is recoverable, you can revive her in 24 hours, with 24 hours of prayer and meditation.
The eastern high priest raises both hands and incants, and a multicolored explosion of energy manifests between Ary and Aron, blasting them both with chaotic energies. The cultist acolytes begin to chant in unison: "Pil Deskari, Bak ugh Pirúl, Bashum ugh bi Ashirogushi, krem am bum. I, bishdi boghi thrúrk bâl bi koshal ugh bi botul, krul al thrúzg gil Am kul bu hâl guta Am bishul ral!"
Five wicked scythes made of shimmering red energy suddenly manifest around Ary, nearly surrounding her completely. Ary shimmers with her own aura - one of brilliant white gold as motes explode out from her and onto the battlefield. She's seemingly everywhere at once - suddenly in the air, blocking a scythe, then across the field, cutting down a cultist trying to move in closer. The unoccupied summoners move in towards the final circle, drawing their scythes.
Out of sight, on the other side of the wall of fire, the army responds to Irabeth's orders. "Rawley. Lead half of the men west, while my half goes east," barks Captain Cobelen. The tall, heavily scarred woman nods. "Yes, sir," she responds. The cavalry splits in half, each running down along the wall of fire to its end. Meanwhile, Captain Halse leads her men out of the encampment and into the crater, hoping to circle around to the other entrance.
The infantry and medics meanwhile busy themselves with locating their fallen and picking them, ready to leave the encampment.
While the crusaders hurry to carry out Irabeth's orders, the small group of psychics and cultists trapped on their side of the flames notice Rawley's half of the cavalry thunder past them. They attempt to slink away, using the tents for cover. They move along the wall of fire, heading east.
Round 11!
Markus is up!
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Markus takes a deep breath, clutching at his chest. "It's alright." he murmurs at himself. "It's gonna be fine, but only if you're really stupid about it. Okay." he says, setting his shoulders, breaking into a run, and charging into the wall of fire.
He throws his arms in front of his face, realizing a little bit too late that he was wearing one of his nice coats again. Damn. He seriously would have to find something... less-nice for him to wear when getting slashed up and burned by magic.
He comes out on the other side, maneuvers so that he's in between Aron and Irabeth, tries not to look at Annabelle, and clenches his fist. Like slinging a baseball, Markus slings a snowball at two of the summoners - "Magnus-fragor glaciem gelu" he says, and the ball erupts, covering several of the summoners in freezing cold.
Sosiel is left behind as one by one, his love, their lieutenant, and their chief medic all run straight through the curtain of fire.
"Shelyn, please let them prevail," he murmurs, briefly placing a hand over his chest. The cleric then moves to help with the wounded, as Irabeth ordered.
Markus runs through the wall of fire, the flames burning him badly all over his body and thoroughly ruining his clothes. He closes his eyes and tries to focus on a spell but finds that through the cloud of pain he cannot remember the words...
Aron is up!
"Everyone, focus your attention on the master summoner at this portal! We need to disrupt him to finish closing this one!" Nurah shouts for the benefit of those coming through the wall now.
"NO! ANNABELLE!" Everything seems to go still for a moment as he watches her body tumble down. His eyes lock on the man he just watched blow half his only family's body apart. "I'm going to gut you, you b*stard!" His companions' shouts ring in his ears and his hands tremble slightly. He desperately wants to tear the man apart, but the thought of facing down another Hezrou is as chilling as a bucket of cold water thrown in his face. He charges priest Nurah points out, his sword
Aron's sword goes straight into the final cultist, breaking his concentration for just a minute... enough for the final portal to shudder and snap shut once and for all.
The glowing motes shift to red for a moment as Annabelle falls, burning crimson for just a moment, as several of them flood uncannilly in that direction... but to no avail. Ary's face pales - already ashen by virtue of what she is, before her eyes set. She shifts her weight to get under the nearest cultist's defenses, before plunging her sword forward and ripping it sideways in a brutal arc, turning on her heel, and slamming her weight forward into her shield to slam heavily, if inaccurately into the same cultist, taking a dreadfully calm step towards the nearest still-standing cultist.
"One is too many." she says, seemingly to herself.
Irabeth is up!
Irabeth breathes a sigh of relief as the last of the portals closes thanks to Aron's self-restraint... good, since she wasn't nearly fast enough to get to the summoner in time. Noticing the scythe-wielding cultist next to her, she steps back to position herself between him and Markus behind her. First she grasps her own shoulder with her gauntlet, channeling positive energy into her wounds and healing over the worst of her burns. She then swings twice, but the movements are awkward and easily blocked by the cultist.
Nurah is up!
"Yeah!" Nurah yells, forgetting herself for the moment. Looking sheepish, she turns her mount around to face the high priest and closes with him. Using the same trick she'd attempted to use on the other cultist, she channels magic into her words giving the suggestion the weight of an order. "Your portals are closed and your army is broken! You should take a minute to reflect on exactly what went wrong with your plans!"
The scythe-wielding cultists crowd around their foes, completely surrounding Ary with a wall of spectral weapons and cultists. Between Nurah's magic and Faith she is able to repel nearly every blow... but gradually, cut after cut, she is being worn down. Blades fly in every direction as the heroes are surrounded by scythe-wielding cultists, turning the summoning field into a final desperate melee to the death.
The cultist Aron just stabbed takes a step back and raises a hand. "Flee," he commands in an authoritative voice. Aron feels the cultist weigh in on his mind.
The High Priest of Deskari laughs maniacally. "Al! Al! Bat burb! Bat burb at!" He raises his hands, purple and red energies swirling around them. They fire out, circling around nearly all of the priests. Their eyes glow red as Deskari's unholy blessing takes hold upon them.
The cavalry is now completely out of sight... for better or worse. The infantry begins to move the dead out of the encampment. Many of the enemy soldiers here are still breathing... but the infantry is in such a hurry to carry out the Lieutenant's orders that they don't have time to go through and finish them all off.
Above, the ominous grey clouds stop swirling and begin to dissipate. The horrible smell from the middle of the encampment is also beginning to fade.
Round 12!
Markus is up!
"Don't listen, Aron. Bring them down." Ary pants as the enemy assails her ally's mind, just as a scythe rips into her.
Markus grits his teeth. He's covered in scythe wounds and burns, his clothes burned and bloody - but all he can think of is Ary - Ary, surrounded by a horde of cultists and magical flying scythes, and slowly bleeding out to death. He keeps a cautious eye on the cultist in front of him, then extends an arm towards his Commander.
"Tu magnus vulnere," he intones, and a wispy beam of positive energy flows from his fingers towards her, stinging his already burned hands. A particularly vicious wound along her abdomen seals up.
His undead wasps buzz angrily, readying themselves to attack the cultist threatening their master, but Markus raises a hand. "No. That man, with the beetle helm. Attack him, surround him so he cannot so easily escape you."
The wasps obediently fly across the battlefield, stinger first at the man Markus indicated, embedding their sword-sized barbs deep into his sides.
As Sosiel helps move the dead and wounded, the first thing that grabs his attention is the receding stench. A quick glance to the sky confirms that his friends had been successful in their endeavor - perhaps Shelyn had watched over them after all. He lets out a sigh of relief, but does not relax just yet.
"You all keep on going from here. I am going to assist the commander," Sosiel says to one of the nearby medics, passing a gravely wounded crusader over to him. He then breaks out into a full run, trying to catch up to the others.
Aron is up!
Markus watches the cultists' as they are empowered by their leader. He frowns - his attunement to both arcane and divine magics makes it easy for him to decipher what the spell does.
"Watch out! The leader cast Blessing of Fervor.... they'll be attacking a lot faster, now!"
Aron's eyes dart between the two cultists next to him and the high priest trapped between Markus's wasps. He'd much rather be driving his sword in to the man who killed his sister, but he's a bit preoccupied with the men bearing down on him already. He goes for the already injured high priest, his sword flashing down again. "First you, then your boss," he vows.
Aron's sword bites into the cultist with a satisfying thunk.
Meanwhile, battered and bruised, Ary lashes out at one of the cultists in an almost desperate motion, chips of green sloughing off of Faith to be replaced by red and gold beneathe. As she tries to clear an opening, she half-stumbles, fighting her way out of the circle of death, and to the side of Irabeth and Markus nearby.
Irabeth is up!
"You can't stay here commander, it's too dangerous. We'll try to get you out of here as soon as possible." Irabeth says, right after grunting in relief upon seeing Ary make her way to her side.
Then, with a hand, she reaches for the half-elf shoulder, and lays a soothing hand on one of the woman's many wounds. Golden and red light appear, slowly closing it.
"I've got more." she continues, sheathing her sword and digging into her back for a healing potion.
The nearby cultists lash out with their scythes when Irabeth sheathes her sword, but she bashes them aside with her gauntlet.
Nurah is up!
Surrounded by cultists, Nurah spurs her mount to escape her attackers, hoping she can make it back to the others. Preparing a cure spell, she aids the others in getting Ary back in fighting shape when she reaches the group.