As you work your magic on the lock, you are too focused on the task at hand at first to hear the whispers behind the door. But then, you start to hear... spellcasting. On the other side of the door. What do you do?
You can hear spellcasting on the other side of the door that Valaria is working on.
It is a person casting resist fire
Actually it is multiple people casting resist fire. At least five distinct voices.
"We have a caster," Val hisses, stepping back from the door and glancing back at the group.
Confused, Xanderghul simply murmurs, "Its just a resistance spell. Maybe its mortals preparing to fight alongside the brimoraks."
"And if they're expecting fireballs or similar spells to be thrown, it's in our troop's interest to not be all together.". Ary responds via whisper, "Any preparations they make, we need to be ready to counter. Xander, stay near me. I'll likely be able to shield you from the worst of it."
"Would someone be able to open the door from afar once Valaria has unlocked it? That could very well spoil their plot."
"I-I don't know any magic that can do that either," Ayavah whispers, feeling more and more useless by the moment. Her eyes flit to Xanderghul, the only other arcanist here, waiting for his response.
"No worries," Val says as she falls back away from the door just a little. "You have plenty of other tricks that are a lot more interesting than pushing doors open. Lock should be good to go."
Anevia clears her throat and calmly moves to one of the nearby soldiers, reaching for the rope they'd used to scale the wall. She ignores the communication about not being able to open doors with magic, and raises an eyebrow in Ary's direction.
Humming, she calmly begins to tie the rope to the door handle, before throwing her arms out in a 'ta-da!' motion.
Xanderghul grins and flashes Anevia a thumbs-up.
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Anevia gives the door a swift yank, only to find the doors push inwards, rather than opening outwards, making them impossible to pull open in such a fashion, but makes it rather effective to barricade the room from within...
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Anevia 'ta-da's' again... and then moves back into position.
Amid the troops, Ehren hears very little beyond the whispers of his companions. He frowns, wishing he had been a little more thorough when he was scouting.
"I could go in again, see what's going on," Ehren offers, aware that he would be inviting risk. "Maybe even create a diversion."
Hinagiku nods, not her usual nod of agreement. No, instead, this nod hints at an inner choice.
"The onis are often... humm... slow at using fire. I think I could avoid it if needed. I can go and open the door if it's okay with you Ary."
The hallways here are so small and there are so many crusaders the only real way to ensure that no one is visible is to simply close the door. So Hinagiku ushers everyone back into the mess hall, and closes the door....
You push open the door, finding five people on the other side. Four appear to be tieflings, while the one in the center is a halfling. They are all wielding bows, nocked and pointed right at you! They all fire... you duck behind the door, but not before you are hit square with two arrows.
On the ceiling almost directly above you is a monster... a writhing mass of tentacles and too many eyes!
Round 1!
Ehren is up!
"Have you encountered foes up there?" Isilme asks, unsure what the situation up ahead is.
Ehren frowns when Hinagiku goes ahead on her own, having had a more cautious approach in mind. Uneasy about being too far back in the group, he gently pushes his way past the crusaders, joining his friends closer to the door.
Hinagiku grunts in pain as arrows pierce her flesh.
"There is 5 of them, one halfling... didn't see the mage." she says after finding cover behind the door.
"Well, that can't be good," Val mutters. The last thing they needed was an absent spell caster getting the drop on them.
"Now!" cries the halfling in Abyssal.
Before you can even move, a horrible monster drops down from the ceiling - a four-legged monstrosity with far too many tentacles and eyes. Hinagiku ducks and rolls out of the grasp of its tentacles, but is too focused on the monster to notice the halfling run up behind her and stab her in the back with a small sword. The archers then begin to fire on her in earnest. It is only by a miracle - or rather, thanks to the divine gifts granted by the goddess, Iomedae - that she isn't killed in the attack.
Hinagiku is up!
Hinagiku staggers backward toward the closed door behind her.
"Can't... do this alone... open the door." the monk half whispers half gasps.
Ayavah is the first to the door handle. She opens the door, and inhales sharply. "Oh, s&+$," she breathes, seeing the condition the monk is in. She grabs her by her hand and helps pull her to safety.
The Heroes are up!
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Val doesn't hesitate to step forward to take the monk's place "You're not alone," the tiefling says as she pushes through. Then she switches to her throwing knives a sends a barrage of them hurtling at the strange abomination.
Valaria's first two daggers go flying harmlessly past the monster in the doorframe, but the third makes its mark. The monster squeals, while the halfling's eyes widen when she catches a glimpse of the platoon of crusaders in the mess hall. She cups a hand to her mouth and screams down the hall: "Kúl! Bi'li krushi! Konneshka! Bushi'l ai bushish ugh krushi!"
"F+&*! Konneshka! They're here! There's a whole squadron of crusaders here!"
While most summoners summon their eidolons from other planes, some actually harness the power to summon monsters from the Material Plane. These aberrations can come from distant stars, the deepest seas, distant corners of the Darklands or even from the realm of Dreams. For what purposes these strange entities choose to bind themselves with mortal spellcasters are often left unspoken, but it can be assumed the link between summoner and eidolon is found to be beneficial to both parties.
Xanderghul, Isilme, Ary, Anevia, and Ehren are up!
Val winces. "Okay. That is one ugly son of a b*tch."
Isilme hurries up to join the others when it's clear a fight has broken out. "Crusaders, forward," she says as she passes them by. When she gets a chance to survey the situation, sees the horrific tentacled monster and quickly recognizes it as an eidolon. "That thing is an aberration tied to a summoner. Look for someone with a rune matching the one on the eidolon."
Xanderghul, Ary, Anevia and Ehren are up!
Anevia attempts to sneak around behind the group for a clear shot at the cultists facing Hinagiku. The crowded room, however, makes it incredibly difficult to move without bumping into other people, rendering her attempt at stealth comically less so. Nevertheless, when she spots an opening between her friends and the crusaders she takes a shot at the halfling cultist.
Xanderghul, Ary, and Ehren are up!
Xanderghul and Ehren are up!
(+3 AC due to acrobatics ranks, +2d6 damage taken from allies if successful.)
Ary takes one look at the creature and realizes how little she knows about things that aren't demons, once more, only barely managing to understand that the creature is an Eidolon, but the rest of it is mostly lost on her. Despite all of that, she moves forward, trusting her allies to cover her. Wounded as she is, she'll be lucky not to become a pincussion in the grand scheme of things... but with the Eagle Watch already mobilizing, she feels that she'll have adequate cover.
Uncertain as she is of the creature's reach she attempts to pivot at the last moment, just in case of reprisal, but her focus on covering her friends results in her stepping between it and Daisy on instinct.
Keeping her shield between her and her foes, she sends Radiance through the air in a broad space-making arc, her focus on defending herself and her allies clear. Aware of Irabeth's difficulties with heavier armor, she leaves enough space for the woman to also work her way into the fray.
Knowing that there is a fine line between appropriate force and unleashing ones' full powers, Xanderghul holds back for the moment on his most powerful spells.
Reaching forward, a few short words dart from Xanderghul's mouth. Turning his palm sideways, he extends four fingers flat and folds his thumb across his palm. For the moment, nothing happens other than a faint energetic humming from his hand.
Ehren frowns deeply when he sees the severity of Hinagiku's wounds - it was at times like these that he missed his healing magic. Continuing his disregard of doors, the druid walks straight through the wall and crosses the hallway, before entering the room where the enemies are.
Glowering at the archers, Ehren raises his hand at them with its fingers curled inward, like a claw. After muttering a few harsh syllables, he grasps at something and twists his wrist.
"You heard the Chevalier, forwards!" calls Irabeth, pointing her sword in the direction of the enemy. Behind her, her wife blends into the stream of crusaders, taking a shot at the unawares cultist in the doorway... but it ultimately bounces harmlessly off of her chain shirt.
Meanwhile, Ary and Ser Jorsal are the first through the door. Ary strikes first, bringing her lucerne hammer down into the eidolon's front... face? It's hard to tell with all of the tentacles, but there is a mouth in there somewhere. In any case, she creates an opening for Jorsal to come in behind her. Gripping his longsword with both hands, he assists his fellow knight, thrusting the blade deep into the monster. It screams, its many eyes rolling around wildly. Finally, Irabeth moves past the Commander, thrusting her own blade into the monster and nearly spearing it in two.
"Kúshak ashdugul berzúshi," spits the halfling irritably. She quickly steps forward and stabs Jorsal in a gab between his armor before Ary could intervene. Then as quickly as she darted in, she ducks behind the door.
"F%$~ing useless creature."
The crusaders follow their leaders, moving en masse into the hallway. The Eagle Watch - the troop that followed Irabeth and Anevia here all the way from Kenabres - is at the front. Finally free to channel without worrying it would break their ruse, the clerics and paladins begin to attend to the heroes' wounds.
While the monster attempts to fend off the crusaders in the doorway to little effect, the halfling cries out - "Kril am bânk! Kirúl burb gil!"
"Hold your ground! Focus them down!"
The archers raise their bows to fire at the oncoming Crusaders but find them warped and twisted in their hands. The cultists glance at each other in alarm, while the sole remaining cultist with a bow opens fire on Jorsal. Ary moves to step in front of him, shielding him from the shots, which bounce off harmlessly from her breastplate.
The cultists then drop their useless bows, drawing wicked scythes from their backs. Two approach Ehren, who is sticking out from the wall, the other goes after Jorsal. While Jorsal easily pushes the cultist's weapon aside, Ehren is less adept at hand-to-hand combat. Both cultists manage to leave surface wounds, just barely missing his rocky limbs.
Shu Lien and Hua Xing pass by you. Shu Lien ignores you - she is far too eager as she is to get into the fray, but Hua Xing pauses before moving into the next room.
"That was very brave, I think," Hua Xing says softly, in Tien. "Those wounds you took would have caused another to fall. You've come a long way since our training with our Teacher." He gives you an encouraging smile before moving on, not wanting to stand in the way of the enormous stream of crusaders working to move through the tight room. One of the passing clerics that was rescued from Fort Vilareth takes a moment to place a glowing hand on your shoulder. The wounds there start to heal over, if only a little bit.
Round 2!
The Heroes are up!
Val clicks her tongue, not able to get as close as she would like with the others choosing to take the front lines this time. She flicks out another set of daggers and sends them flying, aiming through the gaps in their ranks and she aims to focus down the eidolon.
Hinagiku, Xanderghul, Isilme, Ary, Anevia, and Ehren are up!
"Nice one, Rocky." Ary calls out, as she feels her wounds beginning to heal from the soldiers' aid. She nods a thank you to the soldier who had done so, before waiting for a small gap in the fighting, unfortunately also giving her foe a bit of time to recover. She brings her hammer squarely down from overhead, bringing the full weight of her body down into the blow.
"The gatehouse appears to be a dead end!" Ary shares as she gets a view of the room. "Embrasures for the arrowslits, but no more doors in clear view. Do you see any, Rocky?"
It takes a few moments for Hinagiku to fully regain her composure. Though she knew that to most she appeared wounded yet alarmingly calm, she could feel her own heart beating faster and could not hold her breath as she usually did. Worse, straggling through the ranks of her fellow crusaders, she knew that even though she had retreated to avoid being killed by a fireball, there was this tiny yet present fear.
"Thank you Hua Xing san, but it was also stupid." she simply says after thanking the cleric healing her.
Taking a deep breath in, and now pretty certain the enemy would not use a fireball, Hinagiku simply follows her fellow monks.
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Ehren winces when the cultists' blades cut into him, carving a few small chips off the old block. Not warping their scythes in addition to their bows was an oversight on his part.
"No, not in here," he replies through message, after giving the room a quick once over. He thinks back to the rough map they were given, ascertaining their current location. "We have to go further up the hallway, past the rubble."
Both Isilme and Anevia jockey for position amongst the troops before firing off arrows at the enemy halfling.
Valaria tosses a knife between the advancing ranks, dispatching the eidolon for good. It collapses onto the ground and vanishes in a puff of smoke, returning to wherever it came from. In front of her, Ary finds it difficult to bring her hammer down on the halfling, who is out of range from even her long polearm. She smirks and ducks behind the doorframe before Isilme or Anevia can get their shots off. But the two monks are about to see to the little cultist.. Shu Lien darts past the fray first, then Huá Xíng, who narrowly ducks underneath of a cultist's whirling scythe.
Behind them, the young cleric from Vilareth follows Hinagiku into the next room. He wordlessly places a hand on her back, channeling more healing energy into her. The Eagle's Watch moves into the next room. Some of the paladins hang back, laying their hands on Ary, Valaria, and Ehren to help them recover their wounds. Others move forwards to assist Irabeth and Jorsal. Together, the crusaders cut down the cultist in the doorway, while Ary stands between Irabeth and the remaining archer hellbent on bringing her down.
Undaunted, the halfling continues to shriek out orders. "Kirúl ush bum peghub! Ushi bi gi, bi lumb hat kilkil!" She then turns and yells towards the murder-hole. "Rythus! Skút al bi ghorzi! Hi glug bi bushul nu krul Konneshka!"
Circling around with her drawn blade, she spits, "Linus! Ghuzg am al ukhum krushi ank krul ri har bushdi kishul kúl!!"
"Focus on their leaders! Once they die, the rest will follow!"
"Rythus! Pull up the gate! We need the dretches to help Konneshka!"
"Linus! Get your ass over here and help me kill these foreign f$~%s."
One of the cultists moves away from Ehren to assist the halfling, while his compatriot works to distract him with her own scythe, scoring another shallow wound. The two team up against him... the cultist swings his scythe at him, scoring but a shallow wound, but opening him up for the halfling to dart past his defenses and score a deep stab wound in his side.
Round 3!
The Heroes are up!
"They're calling in back-up. Stand strong and don't let them push us back." Val pulls her starknives and pushes forward, seeing the halfling being pressured by the monks. With plenty of other warriors behind her, she elects not to intervene in the brawl immediately and focuses on taking out the archers before they can provide more aid to the halfling or distract the monks in a way that might prove fatal.
Ehren tosses a jab at the cultist walking away from him, only to receive another cut in turn. With a grimace he attempts to club at her with his other fist, but the movement in clumsy and telegraphed.
Ehren's quick jab is just a tad too slow to land on the opposing cultist. She hops out of the way and shifts her grip on her scythe, ready to swing back...
Hinagiku, Xanderghul, Isilme, Ary and Anevia are up!
"Hey now, little one. Not all of us are foreigners." Ary says, winking at the halfling, as she marches straight past - and out of her range.
Ary calmly moves through the room, shifting her grip on her lucerne hammer as she lowers her stature slightly, allowing her a more maneuverable stance. She slips between one cultist and Valaria, as she sweeps the lucerne hammer up across the ground in an arc terminating in the lower half of the enemy ranger's body. "I've got you covered. Pour in!" she calls over the combat. "Several more across the hall!"
Hinagiku, Xanderghul, Isilme and Anevia are up!
Hinagiku thanks the cleric who healed her once more and continues her advance. She knew that in her state there was little she could do. And so, she finds her way Xanderghul's side. There, with a weak nod, she adopts her fighting stance, ready to defend the mage and the other crusaders if people were to come down the hall.
Valaria quickly drives both ends of her starknives into the gut of one of the cultists attacking Hua Xing.
Xanderghul, Isilme, and Anevia are up!
At the sound of the cultists attempting to open the portcullis to allow in the dretches, Isilme makes a split-second decision. If the cultists were able to open the portcullis, their mission would et significantly more difficult, and it wasn't immediately clear whether Ary and Val would be able to keep them from doing so without help.
Dropping her bow by Ayavah, she calls "Grab that for me please, Ayavah," as she charges through the two doors, tumbles past the halfling, and comes up next to Val. Taking a moment to look around, she spots the gate controls past the archer standing behind them all and continues closing. Stepping between Ary and Val, she draws her rapier and positions herself alongside the archer, denying the cultist the freedom to attempt to open the portcullis.
Taking advantage of Isilme's tumble past the halfling, Anevia fires off a pair of arrows at her.
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul shifts closer to the melee, trying to angle in the doorway to see as many of the opponents as he can. Then he lets loose with a burst of holy light energy. The spell washes over the enemy combatants, threatening to blind them and piercing into their very souls.
A burst of light washes over the guard-room, momentarily blinding the halfling and her comrade.. but Irabeth is also caught unawares in the process. While the half-orc rubs her eyes, the monks seize the opportunity. Shu Lien and Hua Xing start pummeling into her, though Hua Xing finds his strikes hitting mid-air due to the spots in his own vision. The halfling stumbles around blindly, trying in vain to predict where the next hit will land, and in doing so compromises her cover long enough for Anevia to get one solid shot into the chaos. She cries out in pain, as she is shot in the back. Rolling back so that her back is against the wall, she is nearly finished off when Jorsal steps through the door way and thrusts his blade into her chest.
Beside of Isilme, Ayavah wordlessly nods, bending down to pick up her bow as she walks into the next room. She stations herself next to the cultist by the portcullis... he inches further away from her, pressing himself against the wall. Then, faster than she could blink, he fires off three arrows point blank at her. She manages to dodge out of the way of two, but one lands in her thigh. The troops pour out of the hall to arrive at their Commander's side. Several station themselves in the hall, raising their shields and physically barricading the door to prevent the cultists from escaping. Others focus on Hinagiku and Ary, managing to eradicate the worst of their wounds. The rest swarm around the cultists, killing the halfling captain and another where they stand. Faced with overwhelming odds, the cultists turn ghostly white and tremble... but with nowhere to turn, they seem to accept their fate.
"Ra pashi kim bi bol," whispers one cultist as he defiantly swings his scythe at Ary. A last prayer. Reinvigorated by her troops, Ary has the strength to rebuff his swing with her adamantine hammer. The two make eye contact, though, the cultist no longer has any fire in his gaze... only resignation.
Round 4!
The Heroes are up!