Though clutching to Shogunto's familiar threatens to unnerve even the hardiest of souls and the table Milo pulls in as a support feels unsteady at best, everyone manages to make their way across the lake of viscous shadowstuff. At one point, Jerda, getting ready to make her leap off the stairs onto the table, lets out a high scream as the door to the crypt begins to dissolve and the snake-like constructs poke their heads out, hissing and shrieking menacingly - but then the constructs themselves begin to break apart, the shadows that hold the bones together vaporizing into nothingness along with the rest of the house.
As the last person makes the journey across the bog of shadows, patches of the basement's roof begin to pull away, showing only void beyond. It looks as if much of the house above has already disappeared, and the blankness is only spreading. Everyone hurries to the mirror; Nicasor's uncle Corys is the first to arrive. Reaching out a shadowy hand, he touches the smooth surface of the looking glass, and light begins to suffuse his form - a few moments later, he has disappeared completely.
In the mirror's view of the room beyond, you can see him beginning to reform; the room appears to be getting crowded, as Atamin, Manar, Sorin, and the fetchlings from upstairs have joined Stepan and Anya in the Material vault, trailing out into the corridor as they watch intently. They've left a space in front of the mirror open, though, and soon Corys begins to re-form in the gap.
"You kayal, go through first!" Milo shouts. "Nicasor and the rest of us shall come last!"
He doesn't like the idea of Nicasor going through before them-- especially not before him, and having a chance to stand with Anya without their interference. He supposes he should also feel a bit of a pang regarding Stepan as well, but it's a faint one.
Turning to look at Nicasor, he says shortly, "We've worked together with you so far, and kept our word to help you and your people out of this hellhole. Our efforts conjoined made that possible... I suggest you do nothing to make us regret that once we're through. If you go near Anya at all I'll consider you a foe, understood?"
Milo glances around. "Kinvara first, then Tess." Still chivalrous at heart, Milo is. "Xander, myself, and you may come last, Nicasor-- we're all here because of you in the first place, after all."
He waits, wary, to see if Nicasor argues or seems to have treachery in mind.
So be it, Nicasor replies calmly. You think me ready to dispatch your fair baroness when we step through the mirror - a fair concern. But be assured, I have no intention of harming the lady upon our emergence.
He waves the fetchlings forward; Jerda, Merys, and Lucoth rush forward, each setting a hand on the mirror in turn and fading away, only to reappear on the other side of the mirror. Elenuta follows next, glancing back at her leader longingly as her fingers brush the glass.
Ok, what needs to happen:
-fetchlings go through, crowd into hallway (Jerda, Merys, Lucoth closest to room, will stop others from coming in)
-Elenuta needs to cast at Stepan
-Nicasor needs to draw without being seen (Stealth) and attack
So in the House of Night Xander is not surprised, Milo is, and Nicasor wins initiative. In Boroi Manor Elenuta wins initiative and can cast blindness.
With a bow, Nicasor acquiesces to Milo's plan. Shogunto calls his familiar back into himself with a low chant, and first Kinvara, then Tess, then Shogunto proceed through the mirror, each moving away from in front of the mirror for the next. The fetchlings, along with Atamin, Manar, and Sorin, have already crowded into the hallway, though all watch eagerly to make sure all the House of Night's occupants make it through safely.
But as Shogunto wafts into nothingness, Xander just makes out the slight hiss of a sword being drawn from its sheath. Next thing he knows, Nicasor arcs his blade into a powerful downswing, catching Xander by surprise and cutting deep. You will not interfere! he calls out, readying for another attack.
Meanwhile, Elenuta has made her way toward the back of the room to create space, watching the mirror's reflection expectantly - and as Nicasor's sword flashes, she utters one word, ringing harsh in the ears of everyone there. A nimbus of shadow surrounds her hands; she flings it toward Stepan, and suddenly he shouts and begins to grope around. Stepan? Stepan! Anya shrieks, but he continues to fumble around, blindly...
You cursed us to darkness - now taste it yourself! Elenuta crows.
The pale dead eyes of Shogunto shine, emotionless, as he unmerges with his familiar. The undead large head appears above his head. The half-orc grunts in anger, as his face slowly takes back its living color, and he points to Elenuta.
The familiar head moves and the teeth pops prominently, advancing to slam the caster while moaning terrifyingly.
Tess takes a 5-foot step and attacks with her +1 Halberd
Xander grunts in pain and shock and reaches out to touch the mirror. "Big mistake."
Still in shock at the attack, Xander manages to keep his head just long enough to touch the mirror's surface and will himself back to the Material Plane; as he disappears, he hears Nicasor howl in frustration as his sword slices through the empty air where Xander had been a moment before.
Enraged, Nicasor steps forward and turns his attentions to Milo. His blades weave in a deadly dance, but Milo manages to duck and parry all but one hit, though he's thankful that Nicasor's first swing was wasted on trying to finish Xander.
Back in Boroi Manor, Shogunto's terrible familiar advances and tries to slam itself down on Elenuta, and Tess swings powerfully with her halberd, but neither is able to make contact - a strange force stops their blows half an inch from her grey skin. Stepan, blinded and panicking, tries to make his way around the wall as Anya guides him, but Elenuta, cackling with laughter, lashes out with her gnarled quarterstaff, connecting solidly with his back as he gropes about.
The couple manages to make their way around the room, though, crowding in front of Merys, Jerda, and Lucoth in the hall. As Stepan passes, Kinvara murmurs a prayer to the Mother of Souls, and healing energy passes from her hand to his swelling back. The three fetchlings look shocked, but none seem to be making a move to harm the baron and baroness; it seems that, at least for now, your friendly overtures and their resentment of Nicasor are staying their hands, and it even looks as if they're moving to hold back some of Nicasor's more loyal followers.
Milo curses emphatically as Nicasor embodies his worst fears and springs his traps. He'd been suspicious, but... not suspicious enough.
"Damn you for a traitor!" he snarls as one of Nicasor's blades catches him across his chest. "I should never have let you try and sweet-talk us!"
He looks towards the portal, but things there seem a little busy, right now. "Protect Anya!" he shouts, unsure if the others can hear him. "I'll hold Nicasor here a moment!"
His own rapier, enchanted with the crest of a family not his own, flashes in his hand towards Nicasor. Milo takes a defensive posture, his back to the mirror, his movements guarded.
Milo considers, and decides to try and hold Nicasor without standing directly in front of the mirror.
Shogunto focus his Evil Eye on the caster , trying to beat her protections. During this while, the familiar head keeps approaching her and trying to slam while moaning terrifyingly.
As he materialized on the other side Xander tried to motion to Xander to get through the mirror.
"We've been betrayed." he said shuffling out from Shogunto's side, clutching at the wound Nicasor has left along his chest. He healed himself and looked around. "Right. You know that."
Tess readies an attack for if Nicasor comes through.
Elenuta 29/35
Nicasor 43/83
As Xander emerges through the mirror, Kinvara gasps and reaches out to add her own touch of healing energy to Xander's - forgetting Elenuta behind her. But the fetchling woman is too distracted by her attack on Stepan, and fails to react quickly enough to lash out in time to stop Kinvara's healing spell.
Realizing her situation is quickly growing more desperate as Shogunto's familiar slams down on her, Elenuta murmurs a few harsh words. A faint crackle of shadowy lightning begins to pulse around her hand, and she reaches out toward Tess, the dark energy twitching ominously. But try as she might, Tess is too quick, ducking away from the touch until the energy fizzles away harmlessly.
In the mirror's dark reflection, Milo and Nicasor remain locked in their struggle. Nicasor seems intent on removing opposition as expediently as possible; with Xander, his original target, now safely in the Material Plane, his focus shifts to Milo, and he attacks savagely. The first three attacks swing wide in Nicasor's frustration, and Milo begins to thank his lucky stars - but then the fourth swing connects savagely, and only Milo's last-second dodge keeps the blow from burying deep into his vitals. If he hadn't adopted a defensive stance upon Nicasor's betrayal, things could have ended much, much worse.
Shogunto casts a spell (glitterdust; dc 18 for blindness). He pronounces the arcane words almost as if yelling a curse, and the enemy is surrounded by small sparks of light.
Shogunto's familiar keeps mindlessly attacking the now hexed enemy.
Milo dares to grin as three swings miss. "What, can't hit somebody when you're not stabbing them in the baAAAH!"
The blade bites deep, sending chill through his bones. Milo weaves for a moment, but the terror of the shadows keeps him on his feet. If he dies here, in this shadow realm.... it's as dark a fate as any his stepmother ever threatened him with.
"Right," he wheezes. "Goodbye for now-- see you on the other side--"
Tess moves so milo can get through and hit Nicasor when he comes through.
Xander moves in front of the mirror, right next to where Milo was about to appear and prepped to take a gamble...
Elenuta 18/35, blinded, -2 AC
Nicasor 43/83, in transit
Though Elenuta remains in the room, the struggle between Nicasor and Milo is what's on everyone's mind. For a moment, it looked as if he might meet a grisly end in the Shadow Realm - but just in the nick of time, his hand flicks toward the glass, and he disappears in a wash of light. Nicasor, with a growl, follows suit, reaching a long, indistinct hand toward the Shadow Realm's echo of the mirror and disappearing. Elenuta, meanwhile, screeches and begins to grope around as Shogunto's bright dust washes over her, illuminating her and settling in her eyes as his familiar lands another heavy blow.
"Could use some... prayers," Milo wheezes as he appears, with a deep gash, frost-rimed, on his body. "Oww..."
Milo carefully draws a potion, feeling that if he moves too much he might drop.
Xander waited and snatched the shard from Milo's belt as soon as he appeared, raised it over his head with both hands and slammed it into the mirror as hard as he could.
Crush her face to the floor, my minion. - says Shogunto, looking at his familiar - that keeps smashing on Elenuta.
The half-Orc himself, however, gets ready to Slumber (DC 18) Nicasor as soon as he appears. He will let his team strike first and take his readied action last.
While Shogunto's familiar keeps Elenuta occupied, Milo stumbles through the mirror in agony. While Tess stands ready with her halberd and Shogunto stands ready with a curse of slumber on his lips. Xander brings the mirror shard down on the smooth glass. The shard's point meets the mirror's flat plane, and a spiderweb of cracks begins to spread outward, a haze of darkness pulsing at the breaks, trying to escape. The cracks reach the mirror's edge, and pieces begin to fall away...
...but just as the myriad shards begin to fall, a gold mist begins to seep from the glass. As the pieces drop, the luminescence trails behind in the air, deepening and darkening into the shae's shadowy form. His white mask is impassive as ever, but his voice cannot contain his malice.
Thought you to defeat me so easily?
But as he finally coalesces fully into being, everyone's readiness pays off. Tess swings her halberd in a powerful arc, catching him off guard and cutting deep.
And Shogunto pronounces a curse - a curse almost too terrifying to bear even for those who it's not directed at. For Nicasor, it proves too much - he collapses to the floor in a heap of robes and mask and shadow, lying still.
The glowing dust in Elenuta's eyes clears, and she blinks and looks around - just in time to watch her master fall. Nicasor? No-no-NO! In anger, she sends a burst of magical energy at Shogunto. You! You did this!
Tess does a Coup de Grace.
Xander shrugged at the body of the masked psychopath. "It was worth a shot."
Then he turned to Elunta. "It's over. Stand down."
Independently of it, in their round, the familiar attacks again.
Right after, if the caster is still standing, Shogunto uses the Slumber Hex against her.
Milo hastily glugs his potion.
In her passion to protect and avenge her master, Elenuta hadn't taken the head floating above her into account. With one final slam of the floating head, she falls to the ground, her magic burst fading from her palm. Xander turns to the sorceress, only to see her slump to the floor, and his words fall upon unhearing ears.
Meanwhile, Tess squares up, swings her halberd, and delivers a powerful blow to Nicasor's sleeping form. Momentarily, the wound startles him awake - but only for a moment, for the mighty swing of the blade is too much for the shae to handle. He jerks, stiffens...and goes still, his shadowy form dissipating until only the robes and the impassive white mask remain.
At Nicasor's defeat, those few fetchlings that had kept trying to push past Jerda, Merys, and Lucoth suddenly stop, the fight leaving them as they watch their leader fall; near the corridor's end, Atamin, Manar, and Corys watch as well, prevented by the crowd between from rushing to their kin's aid. Corys makes a show of laying down his falchion, and Manar draws Sorin close to her, Iozif's fetchling son burying his face into the shae woman's dress. Quietly, Stepan and Anya make their way back through the crowd, coming to stand among the mirror's shards and looking down at the pile of clothes that was once Stepan's benefactor.
You've done it. Stepan finally says in a hushed tone. Now this plague will be stopped - and it's you we have to thank. And for you to remove Nicasor as well...my family and I cannot thank you enough. In all truth...there were moments I wondered if you would leave me to him. But now my barony is safe, and my son will be free to rule after me without fear...and may he be wiser for his father's mistakes.
"We need to talk..." Xander said coolly.
About what? Stepan replies, slightly bewildered. If it's a reward you wish, I'll gladly pay it - your help for my family and my town has been immense. Whatever you wish, ask it, if it is within my power.
"Remember you just said that, Lord Stepan. I'm going to hold you to your word. For now, we'd like to get cleaned up and sort out what to do about these people who came back with us."
Of course. My home is at your disposal. If the lady's healing energies are insufficient - Stepan nods to Kinvara. - then my aunt can see to your needs. From Kinvara, his glance strays to the half-dozen or so fetchlings and the three shaes in the corridor.
And these...can they be trusted? It seemed there was some disagreement among the shadowborn as to whether to aid Nicasor or not, and those three are of his same kind, if I'm not mistaken. And the child - what do you know of him? I didn't expect to see anyone young among the escapees.
Elenuta -4/35
Meanwhile, Kinvara kneels next to the fallen Elenuta. She lives yet...but not for long. Should I stanch her wounds?
Xander deferred to Stepan. He was the lord of this place after all. Also, Xander wanted to see what he would decide.
"Stepan, what would you have us do with her?"
Shogunto merges back with his familiar. Tired, the half-Orc sits on the floor to meditate, and murmurs a prayer to Pharasma. The Lady is happy today. He remains then silent, closed eyes, waiting for the others. It looks as if he's "digesting" some unwanted food, very uncomfortable with it. The air around him is again heavy, dense as death itself.
Milo's brows climb upward at Xander's words, but he bites his tongue for the moment, deciding to see how this plays out before offering his thoughts on the matter. He idly picks up one of the blades that so nearly took his life, shivering a little as he touches the unnaturally cold steel of Nicasor's blade.
Still saying nothing, he looks at Anya, dreams and fancies drifting in his head... but it's her choice, he supposes. It's always a choice, in the end.
Stepan's eyes travel back and forth between the wounded woman, the party, the shattered remains of the mirror, and the fetchlings crowded in the corridor. After several long moments, he heaves a deep sigh. Keep her from mortal danger, but leave her unconscious if you can. She will remain unharmed in one of the basement cells for a time, until we receive a vow of peace from her. Many lords would have considered her magics turned against me grounds for a death sentence, but I do not wish to throw lives away. He makes a final gesture to Kinvara; she murmurs a prayer to Pharasma, and energy flows from her hand to Elenuta's wounds, which cease bleeding, though the kayal woman remains motionless.
Make no mistake, though... he goes on, turning to the other shadowborn watching from the corridor. I will not brook dissension or warmongering from anyone. Any willing to submit themselves to me will find me a just lord; places will be found for each of you, and you will have a chance to start anew, the events of ages past behind you. Any unable to put the events of ages past behind them will not find me so acquiescent. The look in his eyes is stern and hard as flint; with one final look to Nicasor's remains in front of the shattered mirror, each of the fetchlings bows their heads toward him in deference.
Now, will some of you aid me in moving her? Two kayal men step forward and pick Elenuta up gently, one under each of her arms. Everyone files out to the wider space of the basement and watches as she is carried to the small cell block; a few eyes bear looks of shock as the door to the cell block is opened, but relax as nothing comes forward. It seems the guardians of the crypt in the House of Night aren't quite forgotten. Watching as she is deposited into a cell, Stepan leans toward the single guard on duty. Bind her hands. She has magic at her command.
With his instructions, he turns his eyes back to Atamin, Manar, Corys, and Sorin, keeping to the basement's wall and sticking close to each other. Manar and Sorin in particular glance around the basement in wonder, Sorin clutching to Manar's leg. And now we come to you. You are of Nicasor's kind - kin, I wouldn't doubt. Nicasor had a wife, brother, sister-in-law, and uncle imprisoned with him, if I remember the histories correctly, and they've been much on my mind lately. He turns back to the party. Will their presence inspire more violence? And who is the child? There were no children imprisoned.
"This child is the sins of your past coming back to haunt you, my lord. You've just shown mercy to your enemies in a way that satisfies me that you are not the person you once were. Now it is time to confront your past. I hope you find the same mercy for yourself and this child as you did with your foes." Xander said in a concerned tone. "Speak with him. Ask him who his father is."