Unafe shakes her head. "An invitation gives him the choice: taking his time to prepare, ignoring us, or even fleeing. Getting the jump on him in his lair doesn't seem easy, but it's worth it."
She takes a moment to shrink to about the size of a velociraptor and then turns to her flying companions. "Anna has spoken but what about you, Yui and Rue: could either of you comfortably carry me while you fly? Or Ehren, your magics are great. Do you want to fly in or be in the second wave? Surely you could take the form of some bird if you wish."
After a pause, Unafe thinks to add, "By the way, if you bind these chords around your forearms you'll find you can carry significantly more without it weighing you down. I'm happy to lend them to one of you if it makes it easier to carry me."
"Besides, I don't really think that Vang is the type of vermin that would come out when called for." Sana responds to Myrna's suggestion. "At best, we'd be telling him we're here, at worst, we'd be wasting valuable resources to have him sit in his sarcophagus gloating about how inferior we all are." Sana says, agreeing with Unafe.
"And... if that's the case... sure. If you're sure you're willing to lend them to me, I'll be happy to take them and try to carry you. Certainly a good time to try, rather than when you need to be carried and I'm not sure if I can." Sana agrees once more. After a bit of finagling, she gets them on, and with a few adjustments to her cufflinks, they shift into white ribbons to better match her outfit - though, illusory. "Ready to see if I can give you uppies?" Sana asks, playfully.
After letting Sana see how big she'll be, Unafe relaxes her focus and returns to her human size. She helps Sana tie the straps around her arms and then says, "I am ready when you are."
The ruined building remains at the heroes’ backs. Deep inside the shadows, the massive flower-thing still pulses, vines shifting causing corpses to sway like ornaments. The stench from inside still clings to their clothes, sweet and rancid. And ahead, things aren't much better.
Aemmer’s Creek spreads out under a cloudy sky. Mist coils below. Ancient trees rise from the muck, bark drowned in hanging moss. They can hear the sound of gnats swarming over the water. Half a mile away is a half-sunken chapel. A moldy ruin, its swollen wooden door bulges in its frame.
Yui had seen it: a shimmering barrier around the building. Inside, demon sentries crouched like gargoyles along the ruined roofline, while outside, a silvery web of alarm spells threaded between the trees.
Vang is inside. Somewhere.
Alase's gazes out at the bog. “Alright, let me repeat,” She points towards Yui. “You fly ahead first, with your magic-sight. You can call out anything you missed the first time, while behind you, Anna carries Unafe, who has shrunken herself, and all three of you will breach the barrier together,” A quick gesture to Rue, the succubus.
"Meanwhile, Rue will be on point." Alase absentmindedly draws lines through the mud with her boot, then nods towards Ehren. "Archdruid, are you flying with the first group? Or coming through with Amber?" Her head tilts.
“Hinagiku, Myrna, Beatrix, Tonbarse, and I hold position until that barrier drops, then, I summon a distraction on the ground to trip the alarms. Their eyes go low; and we strike from above, once Anna signals and Amber can bring us through. Is everyone aligned?” Her gaze sweeps the group.
Tonbarse shifts behind her and makes a snuffling sound.
Unafe nods. "There are plenty of things that can go wrong, assaulting the base of a witch like this, but I think we have planned enough and I'm eager to see if we can catch this abomination on the back foot for once."
Ehren calmly considers Alase's question, his one-eyed gaze briefly flicking skyward. "I will stay put. I can do more down here, with my feet on the ground."
Alase nods at Ehren then raises her arms and stretches. "Ground team it is, good deal." She looks around the group one last time. "Anyone need a moment, this is our last chance for spells, prayers, whatever. Once it's time to go it's time to go, so, speak up." She pauses as she gazes out at the bog stretching before them, gray and silent. Yui lifts first. Her form shimmers and fades until she's little more than a ripple in the mist.
Sana follows, Unafe tucked against her. Her flight is likewise near-silent. Rue spreads her bat-like wings and takes off behind them at a distance.
Below, the water is pitch-black. The trees are dead. The mist swallows sound and color, and the occasional gust of wind is bitter cold. They pass a half of a mile.
Then the chapel emerges from the gray, the demonic sentries crouching on its roof. They lie motionless on the corners of the building, hulking shapes of gray flesh and folded wings, waiting.
Yui approaches the barrier silently from above and prepares to unweave the defensive spell. Quietly drawing upon her magic, she begins her abjurations.
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Sana follows after Yui, now reladen with Unafe. 'Gods, this is nice.' she sends to Rue. 'I've spent most of my life envying strong people for not having to decide what to leave behind, and now I could carry a whole gnome. Maybe two. I need to get myself some of these.'
Unafe continues to focus, drawing on her ancestral connection to keep herself small. As she does, she perches on Anna's back and surveys the bleak terrain.
The Demetae chief smiles a Anna's thoughts. 'Handy indeed! I'm sure we can get you a cords like these once we're done out here, but in the meantime I'm happy to share.'
Yui's first spell unravels against the barrier. The magic ripples like water, distorts, then snaps back into place. The shimmer holds. The second casting flows from her hands before the first has fully faded. This time, cracks race across its surface like ice breaking on a frozen lake before shattering soundlessly.
On the roof, the demons shift, their heads tilting as they scan the skies and murky water below.
Silently, Unafe asks, 'Let's try to sneak past those guards. I'd rather not give Vang time to prepare or flee while they distract us.'
"I'm willing to try... but we're not exactly invisible. We'd have to clear the entire space without cover. And we still need to cause our distraction if we're planning to." Sana responds mentally.
Through a jagged hole where the steeple once stood, you peer down into a single large chamber. Stone pews lie overturned and rotted. A defaced altar squats at the far end, its holy symbols gouged out and replaced with something crude. The floor near the altar has been torn up. Flagstones have been pulled aside to reveal a dark opening with stairs leading down into darkness below. You don't see Vang.
The nabasu haven't seen the heroes. Their dead eyes sweep the bog, the treeline, the mist rolling beneath them. One tilts its head and sniffs, nostrils flaring wide. But their gaze passes over the heroes hidden in the nearby trees.
Rue's voice sounds in your minds: "They're blind to us for now. But I know I can't reach the opening without going through them. Your call, do we hit them now, or bring in the others first?"
"My vote is to bring in the others. I could probably sneak us inside, but I don't like the idea of being trapped between that many Nabasu and whatever else he's got in there." Sana responds telepathically. "Though I guess the trick to get them to fly off after us isn't going to work great as a distraction... blowing open a way out in case things go south is still worthwhile."
While the others fly off, Myrna waits behind with Alase, the Archdruid, and Lieutenant Medici. Growing more used to waiting by the day, she paces only moderately. While they wait, she enchants herself with heroism, knowing that it would be far less than an hour before they were going to be fighting the demons.
Of course, Myrna still didn't have a swarmbane clasp, which meant that there was little she could do against the worm that walks that they were here to pursue. But she could at least destroy his cultists, guards, and the nabasus that were around.
Not sure exactly how telepathy works, she tries to think towards Rue. "When do we get to crack some skulls?"
Knowing that battle is near, Beatrix casts a spell on herself to protect herself from compulsions. It was a small measure of protection, but it was as good as it was going to get this time. The rest of the prayers that she had prepared for the day were more direct, for battle.
"I'm ready," she murmurs, "Let's slay some demons."
Rue's voice is heard by Unafe, Sana and Yui: "Anna's right. We hit harder when we're all together. Any objections?"
"Looks like that's a 'No.'" Sana responds after a few moments of waiting for any interjections, "Get ready to pounce, I'm sending the signal to our allies." she continues, hovering down to the ground.
Back at the ruined building amidst her allies, Amber flutters slowly back and forth, telling the group they were ready to join them.
Knowing that Amber waving meant that it was, in fact, time to slay demons, Beatrix casts a spell on herself in preparation for battle, surrounding herself with a blazing halo of holy power, protecting her against the attacks of demons and giving her a powerful attack to use against the nabasu.
Then she disappears into the lantern, appearing beside their half-demon friend.
Already enchanted by heroism, Myrna is about as ready as she thinks she'll ever be. Quickly she drops her turtle shield of rushing waters and her hammer of cosmic sundering into her hands and then rushes into the breach, appearing beside her Lieutenant, scanning the horizon for threats. She sees the nabasus waiting for them and readies for battle.
"Hah!" she barks, "These creatures will be easy!"
"I will be preparing for Vang to prevent him from using his magic," she relays through succubus.
At Anna's signal, Unafe stops concentrating on keeping herself small and immediately regains her full saurian stature. The instant she does, she attempts to grab the nearest demon and then to step onto the rooftop in the spot the demon was perched.
Ehren steps through the lamplight and appears at Sana's side in a flash.
At the ruined building, Amber bobs in the direction Sana directs.
Alase cracks her neck. "Alright, let's go."
Hinagiku steps through first, then Alase, spear in hand. Tonbarse pads after them. They materialize in the trees near the chapel next to Sana. The nabasu crouch on the broken roof ahead, oblivious. Then Unafe stops holding herself carry-size.
She erupts into twelve feet of saurian fury in an instant. Her hand shoots out and closes around the closest nabasu's throat before the demon can react. It thrashes, wings beating uselessly in her iron grip.
At the same time, Rue's bowstring releases. The arrow catches the other close nabasu in the shoulder, leaving the feather shaft sticking out. Black blood pours down its shoulder. The demon flinches, hissing, nostrils flaring. Its head snaps toward them, eyes wide.
Round 1!
Unafe is up!