"That doesn't mean you don't need an adult, Xander!" Anevia calls back. "You're in a deep, dark pit, Poot! I'm lowering in a rope, can you see the rope?"
"Careful, some of them are on their way up," he remarks to Walteph, who was in a fairly opportune spot to take advantage of the situation. "They must have heard that horn."
"My name is not Poot! It is Potts! Hildifons Potts!" the halfling responds to Anevia, irritably.
Cultists start to pour in from the upper levels. Erin intercepts the first one to appear on the right-hand stair- her heavy swing landing with a sound like splitting wood.
Your orb bowls over four more cultists - two hit the ground so hard they don't get back up again. When he pops back up onto the second floor, Walteph nods and grins. "Thanks for the intel, rocky man."
Isilme is up!
"Crusaders! Now is the time to press forward and defeat the cultists! For the Crusader-Queen!" she calls out to the people in the chamber with her, bolstering their spirits.
Reaching over quickly to Val, she pours her divine energy into a rune, enhancing her heroism spell and imbuing the tiefling with it.
One of the cultists - a tall, hunchbacked woman - swings heavily at Ary... she manages to step out of the way before her scythe beheads her, but it leaves a shallow cut down her shoulder. Jabbareh strides across the room to her Commander's defense, but her swing is just an inch too short.... but Edward ducks under her wild attack, his own blade connecting with the cultist's kneecap with a crunch.
Meanwhile, Gylex turns to address the cultists coming down the stairs.He swings once..twice.. so graceful was his finishing blow, that he feels the need to take a bow before his dying opponent.
Further across the room, Annabelle grins and jabs her glaive into the shantak's face, who roars with pain.
Valaria and Ary/Anevia are up!
Seeing the shantak howl in pain and turn to focus on the cavalier, Val closes in with a quick step and begins to slash across it's body again and again with her daggers.
The shantak is completely unprepared for the abrupt nature of Valaria's assault...
Ary and Anevia are up!
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Ary deftly swivels past the warrior that had just struck her, bringing Radiance into his gut before taking advantage of his painful distraction to hammer down two more neat blows as he falls.
Anevia stands stock still for a moment, she looks down at the fallen cultist with a glance. She could have sworn she just saw his scythe move... but then thinks better of it, focusing on the task at hand. "Oh man. that looks like that hurt so bad. Can you see it from down there, Poot? My gods, there's blood everywhere. Still can't see the rope? Here, I'll give you some light." she calls, as she fires a blade of pure force from her bow towards the Shantak... directly over Potts' head.
Anevia looses her shot, its high-pitch song singing an aria of death...
Hinagiku is up!
Wishing to end it quickly, Hinagiku reaches deep within herself to the harmony, peace, and kindness within her inner pool, and lets the energy flow into her limbs. Then, while the shantak's attention is focused on Anevia, she unleashes a series of blows on the winged creature, each carrying a faint trail of blue and white wisps.
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After sounding his horn, the cultist teeters backwards and falls into Xanderghul's jerkpit filled with spikes.
Hinagiku's final punch lands in the shantak's solar plexus - it loses its breath and staggers backwards... then falls unconscious. The other cultist beside of her - a man with draconic horns and scaly green ridges on his shoulders - stands there and babbles incoherently.
---
Round 6!
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul merely maneuvers across the room, not wanting to become visible until the fight takes a turn for the worse or until the fight is over. He feels more comfortable away from the shantak, whether it's "unconscious" or not.
The trapdoor in front of you pops open. Using a cunning underhand swing, Walteph catches the cultist below completely off-guard... his blade rips through her, and she instantly falls unconscious.
The whirling melee seems to slow to a crawl as Arta's scythe arcs toward Hinagiku. She pulls back at the last moment, and the blade slashes a line in her clothing.
Ehren is up!
"I'm going to check on the other side," he remarks to Walteph, before plodding directly through the wall, into the adjacent room. He approaches the trapdoor and gives a similar report to Erys. "Careful, I think they're on the way up."
The trapdoor opens next to you in the other room, and a man with a canine muzzle and claws peeks through the opening at you and Erys... Caelda rushes into the room, and attempts to strike at him through the opening, but falls just short.
Erin circles around to swing at the next cultist... a spark flies from the strike of their two blades. “Ha, ha!” the cultist retorts confidently. “You missed!” But her next swing lands with a wet thwack, a sound only the goddess of death could love. A man with a long, forked tongue strides out of the staircase after him, standing over his dead body. He swings confidently at her but his foot slips and he flails wildly for balance. Erin grins at him.
Isilme and Valaria are up!
With the Shantak dead, Isilme moves quickly to flank one of the remaining cultists with Valaria.
"Not so much," Val says as the cultists falls to the ground. "And I'm not going to miss either." She twirls her starknives and slashes at the cultists before her, aiming to put them both on the ground.
As Isilme passes by, the forked-tongue man makes several wild swings at her, and she deftly dodges backward from his unskilled blows. Even after years of being a soldier, the grinding sound of Isilme's rapier successfully digging deep into his collar bone still makes Erin wince a little. But in this case of finally overcoming the raging foe in front of them, she was prepared to put up with it. Soon afterwards, Annabelle's glaive cuts across the back of his neck with a wet thwack and he falls over, dead.
With that cultist dead, Valaria switches to the babbling cultist - she gouges her starknife through and rips back a mess of her opponent.
Gylex crosses blades with a cultist inside the opposite staircase while Jabbareh recklessly charges across the room at Arta. With a mighty grunt, she thrusts her blade at her belly. But with surprising agility, she sidesteps her lunge and she stumbles forward, off-balance from her attack. Edward follows soon afterwards with an attack of his own, but she reads the attack in his eyes and easily deflects the blow. Gylex glances back at the melee - a move that costs him as the red-skinned cultist above him cuts heavily into his front.
Sosiel strides into the room, scanning the combatants with a small frown. "Where did Xanderghul go?" he asks, remembering his scream of pain.
Erys hews into the muzzled tiefling on the ladder violently.
Ary/Anevia is up!
"Collapse towards one side of the room. Avoid the pit. If they can get us into small pockets they'll pick us apart. Watch each other's backs." Ary calls to her unit as she hurtles herself across the room, slipping under Arta's guard as her cape disguises her movements, her sword held high. Suddenly her shield is slammed into the enemy leader's chest as she threatens to slam her bodily into the wall.
Anevia bumps into Xanderghul as she begins to move across the room. She pats his chest as she slinks by, mumbling something about 'Rude twiddlefingers', as she heads for the door that overlooks the other stairwell. She thinks better of going inside as she sees her targets going down like flies, instead moving to fire on Arta. Supernatural Darkness engulfs her arrow causing it to blend in with the nothingness in between the two - but the woman was still quite well-armored. She winces, half-expecting the shot to skitter off - but no guts, no glory. "Poot! I'm on the other side of the pit now! Can you see the rope from over here?"
"Yes, Commander," calls Gylex from inside the stairwell. Ary slams Arta into the wall - her expertly executed swing hits with a satisfying crunching sound and she slides down onto the ground. Unfortunately this leaves Ary in the way, and Anevia isn't able to line up much of a shot.
"I told you! My name is Potts!" his voice echoes out of the pit, irritably. "Eyrgcweðan hit hê... Padrona Arta? Padrona Arta? Pa so'ha? Va bene? Ah hi'ij soh?"
"Mistress Arta? Mistress Arta? Are you there? Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
Hinagiku is up!
Hinagiku steps forward to close in with Arta. Since the woman is on the ground, Hinagiku locks a leg with her, twisting to bruise her leg before pummeling it with her fists.
Hinagiku's blows land with almost no resistance, leaving torn clothes and bruises beneath her armor.
Another cultist pops up beside of you. Erys swings hard... Deskari must be looking out for this cultist, because a swing that should have beheaded him hits but lands a few inches short of the mark... Once he climbs out of the hole he draws his scythe. With a swift, advancing step, he leaves Erys unable to defend against his attack.
You hear Walteph's voice from the next room - "BRIATHOS! I need some back-up over here!"
Round 7!
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul shifts across the room again, getting closer to Sosiel. He re-appears, having judged that the room was safe enough this time and that he needed to be healed immediately in order to contribute to the ongoing battle. "I'm right here, Sosiel. Help me."
"Alright, just a moment..." says Sosiel - he doesn't even look startled when Xanderghul abruptly appears out of thin air.
Across the room, Arta confusedly swings at Hinagiku from the ground. Her poor tactical choice catches Hinagiku by surprise - she thrusts her scythe in an upwards arc, catching her across her front and drawing a long, bloody gash.
Another cultist comes out of the trapdoor right after the other- a hulking, muscular woman with a hideous face, fangs, and enormous horns. She swings at Erys, but she dances nimbly out of reach with a laugh at her crude lunge.
Ehren is up!
"Stay clear of the trapdoor," he warns Erys and Halse, before slipping into the stone floor. Much like before, he emerges from the ceiling of the lower floor. Right away, Ehren spots the cultists mobbing around the ladder. Recognizing his opportunity to strike, he quickly draws on the power of the closest ley line he can find, weaving it into one of his strongest spells, and then unleashes on the group of cultists.
A white-hot pillar of divine flame erupts from the ground, engulfing the cultists and shooting right up through the open trapdoor. It burns intensely for a few good seconds before abruptly dying out, leaving sparkling ley motes in its wake.
You blast the cultists below you with fire, killing 4 of them outright. Their charred corpses fall off the ladder and onto the ground below.
"There it is! That little spellcaster!" cries one of the cultists in Abyssal. "Get it!'
The cultist on the other end of the room fires his crossbow at you... it barely grazes you, scraping a pebble off of your cheek.
Erin circles around the staircase. She swipes at the cultist leader on the floor, but she swings too high to reach her.
Isilme and Valaria are up!
With the current wave of mooks mostly thinned out, Val quickly picks her way through the bodies of both fallen enemies and standing allies to close in on the cultist leader. Then she stabs down fast and hard, driving her starknife at the prone woman's body.
"I am going to help Ehren get the gates open," Isilme says, seeing that Arta is surrounded and there is little left to do here. Turning to head down the stairs, she takes advantage of her haste to cover the distance quickly. As he comes into the main hall she swings right and heads into the room with Briathos and Walteph. "Their leader and her Shantak pet are down," Isilme says non-chalantly as she walks up next to them, making certain the cultist hears clearly. She brandishes her weapon at the cultist. "Only one thing remains to be done," she adds, glancing down at the trapdoor briefly.
The cultist engaged with Walteph pales noticeably at Isilme's news, but it serves to only bolster Walteph and Briathos' spirits.
One of the wounded cultists starts to climb up the broken ladder...
Gylex leaves the other staircase to rejoin his commander. Annabelle circles around the other side and tries to find an opening to stab at her with her glaive, but comes up short in the hectic melee. Then, erupting in an explosion of violence, Valaria plunges her starknife into Arta…
Across the room, Sosiel presses his hands on either side of the scythe wound left by Arta. His hands glow with positive energy, and the worst of his wounds starts to heal over. Just as he finishes, he notices the red-skinned cultist in the corner of his eye approach him from the stairwell... in a flash, he spins his glaive in an elegant motion to deflect his incoming scythe. but when the cultist swings his scythe at him, it clangs off of an invisible bubble that surrounds him. At the point of impact the bubble flashes golden - it has an intricate floral pattern - but it vanishes from sight just as soon after.
Ary/Anevia are up!
Anevia watches the melee carefully, waiting for an opening to launch her attack, string drawn back without an arrow once more, while Ary continues to rain blows down upon Arta, golden motes following behind each strike and seeking out Ary's most injured nearby ally. Just as Ary is correcting for her misplaced slash, Anevia launches her arrow of force hoping to catch Arta by surprise - just in time for Ary's shield to come arcing around, threatening to ragdoll Arta once more.
Ary's skillfully placed swing rakes across Arta... but Anevia's shot - a difficult one considering she's firing past many of her fellow crusaders - misses wildly while Arta thrashes and twists about on the ground.
Arta’s unfocused eyes and her determination to strike back at Hinagiku gives the monk an idea to escape her foe’s deadly scythe. Further twisting Arta’s leg, Hinagiku presses down with all her strength before pummeling a her hips. Then, just before retaliation occurs, Hinagiku lets go of the leg and steps backward out of the scythe’s reach.... Arta's eyes roll back into her head and she slumps down onto the ground, unconscious.
A heavily armored cultist starts to climb up onto the ladder.
The cultist - a man with glowing eyes and spade-like fingernails, grins as his scythe slices across Walteph's collarbone. He screams in pain, clutching his breast as blood pours down his torso. Briathos presses his palms against his back, sweat pouring down his brow as he works to try and reverse as much of the blow as he can.
Round 8!
Xanderghul is up!
"One more should do it, Sosiel," says Xanderghul, shifting another few feet over to get a clearer look at the warrior threatening their cleric. He balls a tarlike glob of shadow in his hand, winds up, and throws it at the warrior in an attempt to slow him down.
Walteph swings heavily at the cultist in front of you, but he parries his attack like he's hitting a wall... the crusader almost bounces back from the sheer force, this guy is strong!
Ehren, Isilme and Valaria are up!
Knowing Briathos is there to help Walteph, Isilme takes advantage of the cultist's satisfaction with his attack to sidestep around him. Attacking from his side, she launches a flurry of vicious attacks with her rapier, aiming at his heart.
Val frowns as the cultist leader goes down. This is going almost entirely too well. Still, she's not one to turn down good fortune. "Isilme is getting the gate, Ehren is downstairs, this is taken care of..." She shrugs and moves to help Xan and Sosiel clear out the last mook who is harrying them. "I think we're just about done here. Let's finish this up."
Your holy blast sears through the highest of the cultists, obliterating him into ash. The bottom two are blinded by the display, and cannot climb nearly as fast because of it.
The cultist struggles to comprehend this unexpected turn of events, as your rapier sticking out of their body slowly drains their life away.
Erin moves across the room just faster than Valaria and swings low, but the cultist skips lightly backwards, calmly waiting for an opening he can use. Jabbareh moves in next - the cultist catches her as she moves into position, his scythe producing a high-pitched noise as he strikes her. "من درخشیدم," she murmurs - the wound healing over as she counter-strikes, but the cultist spins away just in time. Annabelle takes up the rear and gestures Edward over when she sees an opening... but with a parry, and a duck, the cultist avoids the next two blows with ease. While the cultist is distracted by all of this, Valaria finds the chink in his armor: right below his thigh, she strikes him in the knee, causing him to cry out in pain. Bleeding profusely, he glares at Gylex - his first target, and swings heavily at him. The other tiefling dodges his blow and tightens his grip on his blade. "Oh, so close," the crusader says with a grim smile.
Sosiel steps away from the surrounded cultist towards Xanderghul with a small smile. "Good, because that's about all I have left in me." He closes his eyes and murmurs a prayer to Shelyn as he continues to work on his wounds. "There...good as new. Almost."
Ary and Anevia are up!
Ary stands still, focusing on the chaos around her, two foes in a pit, battles going on below. "I will have faith in them." she intones, watching for any threats that she can intercept.
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Pott." Anevia shares before vanishing to the other side of the room, guided by Xanderghul's light. She appears, rising in the cultist's shadow, but her sudden lunge is as impatient as she is.
The cultist at this point is moving slower and slower, courtesy of his many wounds and the binding shadows that ensnare him.
Temporarily deprived of sight, the armored cultist can only climb very...very...slowly.
Hinagiku is up!
Hinagiku watches, apparently unmoved, as Arta falls into unconsciousness, and then turns around to Ary and the situation behind her. Seeing as though the situation seems well in hand, she nods ever so slightly.
"I will go up to make sure there is no one trying to free the gong."
You head up the stairs... but it quickly becomes dark. Your keen senses and exception sense of balance, however, allow you to maneuver up the stairs very quickly. but once you get to the next door it is pitch black. Your ears twist around, trying to hear anyone who might be around you... but you don't hear any sounds.
With urgent speed and deft finesse Walteph's longsword twists in the air as your opponent lunges wildly at him with his scythe. He deflects each blow confidently at the last moment, divinely imbued with his goddess' own power, while Briathos maneuvers around him to strike back with deadly effect. He swings his longsword with a graceful arc of absolute surety and terrifying beauty and then plunge it into the cultist's back.
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul follows after Hinagiku, bringing his lit wayfinder along to light the way for her. "Somebody keep an eye on them" he says, pointing to the pit, "And thanks for the healing Sosiel." he adds. Then he dashes up the stairs, robes a-flutter and boots clicking on the stone.
As the armored cultist nears the top of the ladder, Ehren points a finger at them and fires an acid dart. The acid burns through their helmet and they fall to the ground with a crash. There is only one blind cultist remaining on the ladder - they visibly shudder when they hear the crash, but they press forwards all the same.
The cultist on the far side of the room fires once more after carefully lining up his shot... this time it grazes over your head, knocking off a dirt clod. It falls to the ground and explodes into dust.
Captain Halse enters the room, her lance dripping with fresh blood. "Ehren seems to have the other side cleared out... what is happening over here?"
The cultist pulls back at the last second to avoid Erin's longsword as it arcs towards him... it leaves a rip in his clothing but nothing more.
Isilme, Hinagiku and Valaria are up!
Isilme makes two quick slashes at the cultist warrior as she swings around to flank him with Walteph. "Just finishing up here," she responds after attacking. "We can head down shortly and take care of any remaining cultists."
Your group scopes out the fourth floor... aside from an abandoned bunker full of beds and personal effects, this floor seems abandoned. The stairs lead upwards onto the roof.
You can hear the voices of the remaining cultists below - 7 total. They cry out their surrender - "Okay, okay we give up!" "Please don't kill me!" "We surrender!" "Don't drown me with that giant orb, little rock-thing, please!"
They drop their weapons and raise their hands, kneeling.
Jabbareh's silvery blade flies through the air like a mystic bird before perching on the cultist's neck... before ripping into it with its curved beak. SKREEEEE The cultist falls over, dead.
Combat Ends!
Xanderghul calls Isilme up onto the roof to give out the dancing lights warning as promptly as she can, while he goes into the room with the remaining warrior of Deskari and Poot. "So, Pott. What are your thoughts on this whole situation?"