Nebbin lifts his sword in a protective stance.
"I think they know we're here," he says in a whisper. "Should I tell them they need to leave?"
As they advance into the cavern Emi follows Nebbin's lead on positioning. She moves around to keep avenues of approach covered wherever he can't.
Even when she spots the figure moving toward them she leaves it to Nebbin. She fully expects he can handle it. She also fully expects it might be a feint with the real attack coming from a different direction so she keeps her attention on the three direction other than the figure's.
Currents of electricity run up and down Tassira's arms as she advances.
"You worry about defending yourself," Kayleigh whispers back to Nebbin. "I'll try to talk with them."
"We come in peace," she calls out to whatever lurks inside the globe of darkness. "We'd like to discuss a truce if that's possible."
Kayleigh's right hand grips the hilt of her daylight-enchanted dagger but she doesn't draw it from its sheath yet, waiting for Regeris to make his move.
Regeris remains exactly where he is with his bow nocked, waiting for the creepers to continue to move in to engage in melee. He does not call for the dagger just yet, instead waiting for them to properly close in with the part.
Darkness falls over the party like a shroud. Emi can hear the breathing of more enemies out there in the dark. Something strikes Nebbin on the thigh, though he doesn't think he's hurt.
Regeris watches as the Dark Creepers pass him by. His vision of his friends drains of color as the Creeper's domes of magical darkness engulf them and Darkvision takes over.
Good enough.
"NOW!"
As he shouts out for Kayleigh to reveal the daylight spell, Regeris prays that it works as intended, and he quickly looses two arrows into the nearest dark creeper.
With a silent prayer to Milani that this plan works, Kayleigh draws her daylight-enchanted dagger.
Kayleigh takes a quick step closer to Nebbin and feints at the nearest creeper , hoping to distract it so Nebbin can cream the little creep.
Kayleigh used an Aid Another attack to help you hit your foe. Success! +2 to your attack.
HP 59/59
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (-2 to all when raging), DR 2/-
Fort +8, Ref +4 (+1 vs. traps), Will +2 (+2 Will when raging) [Defiant luck]
CMD 20 (22 vs. grapple)
Rage: 0/18; Harrow points: 2/3; Auspicious Mark (1d6+1) 0/1; Defiant Luck: 0/1
Effects: Aided (+2 to hit), antidoted (+5 vs. poison), protected from evil (+2 AC, saves vs. evil)
Nebbin, seeing the attackers brings his sword to bear, swinging it in a mighty arc.
Both of Regeris's missiles fly true. The first is a solid hit that doubles the little monster over in pain. The second arrow takes it in the upper chest and the creature dies with just the briefest bark. Aided by Darkvision, Regeris can see two others wheel around, see the felled Creeper, and see him staring back at them, bow in hand. See their shock at getting taken unaware.
Suddenly the full force of the blessing on Kayleigh's blade is revealed to the room. The flood of bright light sends shadows racing to the most obscure crevices. The black-swaddled brigands who once sneaked in the dark are now revealed, blades poised in the act of swinging the hidden stroke. Their flesh is so pale it's blue. They shield milky-white sensitive eyes from Milani's radiant power and screech in outrage.
When the light flashes out into the darkness Emi hesitates for a moment, getting her bearings on what's going on and where people are. Even with her slower response though, she's still ahead of the darklings.
Emi leaves Nebbin to handle his opponent, figuring he'll have no trouble. She advances on the closer one of the two remaining (that she can see at least). By her estimation the third one will have to either go by her or Nebbin to get at Tassira and Kayleigh, which won't be easy for it to pull off unscathed.
Kayleigh basks momentarily in the glow of the daylight spell, her tired facial features exulting in this small victory. She marvels at Regeris's marksmanship and winces as Nebbin strikes hard against his foe, then watches as Emi steps up to deal a similarly impactful blow to another enemy. It's comforting to see her friends striking such mighty blows against the foes of Korvosa.
Definitely not a derro she decides in the moment before Nebbin's greatsword ruins the rag-swaddled creature's appearance forever.
Tassira's lightning flares up and explodes from her fingertips, flying right at the one in the open!
Alas, it appears that if you don't use it, it starts to rust.
Tassira's lightning arcs wildly into the airy parts of the chamber.
Nebbin fiercely cuts down the shocked and blinded foe in front of him. Emi lands a nearly-equal blow against her chosen target, but does not quite bring him down.
The two Creepers remaining shield their eyes from Kayleigh's terrible spell and retreat. One angles toward the comforting shadows of the pillar while the other makes for the bridge, damn the tall foe with the bow standing at its foot.
Casting a look back toward the tunnel mouth on the far side of the chasm, Regeris is surprised to see the line of Kayleigh's Daylight spell once again retreating in the face of some magical darkness. Regeris's Darkvision cannot pierce this globe either. The now-visible inquisitor suddenly feels very exposed.
Since the light seems to be diminishing Emi decides it's best not to go running off anywhere. She leans her falchion against her leg and takes the bow off her back. She nocks an arrow and takes aim at her adversary, hoping to drop it before it makes it across the bridge.
Regeris swears loudly. "Of course they have a better darkness spell. FORM A LINE! Don't let yourselves get flanked!"
He quickly looses an arrow at the visible creeper before retreating back close to Emi.
"We can probably keep fighting them now that we know what we're up against. They don't have ranged weapons and if there's a wall of us, even in the dark, we may be able to handle them."
Nebbin's about to dash off after the little rag people, but Regeris' words bring him to a sudden halt. He steps up next to Emi, sword ready in case anything gets close.
"Should we...block the bridge?" Kayleigh's voice trails off as fear seems to get the best of her. Though it's tactically wise to limit their enemies' access to their side of the chasm while bottlenecking the battle zone and forcing the creepers to come at them from a narrow chokepoint, the fear of what might lurk in the dark keeps the frightened cleric from voicing these ideas.
Too late! she realizes as Regeris barks the order to form a line.
With the more powerful darkness spell eating up her daylight spell and making a mockery of the power Milani has granted her, Kayleigh turns to a different otherworldly ally.
"Zellara...protect me from whatever lurks in the darkness!" she rasps, stepping to Nebbin's side. She casts a quick guidance spell on him, tries unsuccessfully to steel her noodly nerves, and waits for the darkness to swallow her.
Tassira grumbles and casts another incantation to protect herself before getting behind Emi.
Regeris's shot follows the fleeing Creeper into the advancing darkness, disappearing a split-second before it would have taken the target in the back. The shriek that comes out of the globe of darkness seems like a good sign.
As the party forms a rough wall the onrushing dark washes over the group, depriving you all once more of sight.
The zone of advancing 'darkness' is the zone of conflict between Kayleigh's daylight prayer and a darkness effect of equivalent power, effectively canceling magical light and darkness in the zone. It is dark now because the natural lighting conditions underground are dark. Magical light is canceled in this zone of interaction.
The expected attacks do not come at once. Certainly when there was light, the little gang of murderers were scattered by the group's ferocity. As the party stands there in the dark, weapons gripped and ears straining, a flash of blinding light suddenly goes off maybe forty feet away, at the foot of the bridge on your side of the chasm. In the momentary shock of white light you can make out a man-sized foe standing just there. In your glimpse of him he looks surprised and blinded by the flash.
Emi tries to make sense of the flash.
Tassira wrinkles her nose. "No need to panic. Just need some natural light. Magical darkness and magical light cancelled each other out."
She digs a torch out of her backpack and lights it.
Realizing there's a bit of space on her right where foes might slip by, Kayleigh suggests, "Everyone take a step or two back!"
Tassira's torch sputters to life, casting mad shadows on the walls of the cavern. Holding the torch high, Tassira reveals that you're alone in your corner of the cave. The two corpses remain - the torchlight doesn't reach the bridge where the third wounded one was last seen.
Something out in the darkness of the cave, perhaps just outside the light of your little flame, hisses in anger. There's speech there. Verbal consonance. Commands, maybe curses. Nothing that means anything to any of you. And no foes, within the radius of the torchlight.
"Hello?" Nebbin calls out. "We don't want to hurt you!"
He maintains his guard stance, just in case, stepping to his left to be next to Kayleigh.
Regeris mutters as he moves to the back of the group. "I beg to differ. But we did see someone as tall as a man there."
He steps back among the group to let Nebbin stand in front while he nocks an arrow.
"If any of you lot speak common, we have an opportunity to talk. So talk."
There's no answer to the challenge, just a faint scrabbling sound that only the quickest ears pick up, coming from somewhere out beyond the reach of Tassira's flickering light.
Completely sick of this and foregoing his normal exceedingly cautious approach, Regeris looks to the others. "Advance to the bridge, if you have more torches use them. We need to end this nonsense. They don't have ranged weapons."
I'm going invisible to scout, watch for my call.
Emi keeps her bow ready. With the open terrain and enough light to see some distance, she figures it's better to take a shot at anything she can see when she sees it rather than waiting for it to arrive while she stands there with a sword in her hand.
Nebbin nods at Regeris' comments, and heads toward the bridge. He agrees that he's tired of this. It just needs neverending, and if killing them is the only way to get them to stop, maybe that's what he has to do.
"I'll stay near Tassira to protect her...and the torch," Kayleigh whispers just before her boyfriend heads toward the bridge.
"...and Ravnos, too," she adds as Tassira's backpack shifts of its own accord.
Tassira will follow 10 feet behind Nebbin.
Emi puts away her bow and takes up her falchion again. She takes the opposite side of Nebbin from Regeris and advances at pace with the everyone else.
"We should put a torch out on the bridge when we reach it and extend our field of vision. Also remember we had those flying things to deal with before. Stay sharp for any sounds coking up from out of that chasm."
Regeris casts his spell and maneuvers out in front of the wedge that Nebbin's leading. When Regeris reaches the foot of the bridge he pauses to let Tassira's light catch up to him. He may be invisible, but in this odd lighting stalemate his Darkvision advantage is totally lost.
There's a mess of rags here, trailing over the edge of the crevasse. As the party makes its slow way over more light spills on the bridge. The cloth hasn't fallen entirely because it's held by something small and heavy wrapped up in it. Regeris subtly nudges it with his toe, just enough to see it's one of the blades that the Creepers carry.
The rest of the gang forms an odd square anchored on Nebbin and advances together towards the bridge. As Tassira and Kayleigh step around the body of one of the fallen Creepers it suddenly erupts in an explosion of light that dazes both ladies in the rear.
In the chaos of the light-burst, Emi, who had been looking down when the burst happened and still has some semblance of adjusted eyesight, spies a pair of suspicious shadows on the far side of the arched bridge's hump. The foes are positioned on the bridge and on the far side. An ambush. With invisible Regeris out in the dark somewhere in front of her.
Tassira nearly lets out a curse as the creeper's body explodes into light. She manages to shield her eyes in time.
"Goodness!"
Kayleigh squints and raises her buckler to shield her eyes as the dead creeper explodes in a burst of dazzling light. "Well, at least now we know what that earlier flash was," she mutters to Tassira.
"Indeed." Tassira grumbles before moving next to Nebbin.
Regeris remains still as the group moves up, straining to get any sense of what is going on in the darkness ahead of him.
Since doesn't know for sure what Regeris can or can't see, she doesn't think she can count on him avoiding the two dark critters at the far end of the bridge.
He's likely okay with invisibility and dark sight, but if he's not he's really not...
She tries to think of something she can do that will be helpful in whatever the real circumstances are, but doesn't come up with anything that seems really great to her. She acts on what she thinks is the best idea.
Emi sticks her falchion point first in the ground and takes out an arrow. "Tassira I need a light on the point of this right away, can you give me one?"
Emi steps over to increase her angle on a shot to the far end of the bridge. She wants to put an arrow there, but she doesn't want to shoot down the bridge itself because Regeris is somewhere on it between her and the darklings.
She draws her bow and triangulates the location of the far end of the bridge based on her offset distance from her end of the bridge. Just before she looses the arrow, she says aloud "Spotted two of them. Far end of the bridge." She then looses the arrow.
Emi doesn't expect the light to actually penetrate the protective darkness that must be around her targets, but she hopes to give Regeris two clues without revealing where he's at.
If Regeris needs the warning, the arrow should be easily visible as a pointer until it disappears into the magical darkness, (hopefully) roughly where the darklings are waiting.
If Regeris doesn't need the warning her words, and perhaps the arrow, might distract the creepers and give him an advantage over them (assuming his darkvision allows him to spot them).
"Why are they fighting?" Nebbin asks in frustration. "If they wanted to just stay down here and not hurt anyone, they probably could!"[/b]
But since that doesn't seem to be likely, he stays ready to protect Kayleigh and the rest.
Tassira's light spell fails to spark. She remembers that there's already an overpowering magical light effect right now (Kayleigh's Daylight), and a matching magical darkness that are actively canceling one another. Her cantrip has no chance (much like Regeris's Darkvision which is being suppressed inside the radius of the stronger magical darkness). This torch-lit space the party stands in is only the space where Kayleigh's Daylight and the baddy's Darkness intersect.
Emi's shot skips off the side of the bridge and buries itself in the nearest Creeper's leg.
HP 59/59
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (-2 to all when raging), DR 2/-
Fort +8, Ref +4 (+1 vs. traps), Will +2 (+2 Will when raging) [Defiant luck]
CMD 20 (22 vs. grapple)
Rage: 0/18; Harrow points: 2/3; Auspicious Mark (1d6+1) 0/1; Defiant Luck: 0/1
Effects: Aided (+2 to hit), antidoted (+5 vs. poison), protected from evil (+2 AC, saves vs. evil)
"Come get us if you don't want to be friends!" Nebbin calls out, remembering he's not supposed to go charging off -- especially since he can't see the far end of the bridge. He prepares himself for a charge.
Nebbin's challenge is still echoing in the vault above when Emi is suddenly startled by a gleaming whip materializing out of the air in front of her and lashing out.
The enemy takes Nabbin up on his offer and charges. Regeris is suddenly invisible and very in the way. Nebbin's prepared attack takes the first charging monster down and swipes his little corpse to the side.
The other charging Creeper runs directly into an invisible Regeris, causing it to fall directly backwards onto its backside. Another rushes up out of the darkness and takes a blind swing at the overrun inquisitor which somehow hits.
Beside the last Creeper something else comes dancing out of the darkness. It's wrapped up and hidden under flowing robes like the Creepers, but taller and leaner. It stabs blindly into Regeris's space but misses high.
Realizing that he has a rare opportunity, Regeris sights the taller creature. Deciding that it's better to risk his neck and save some lives, Regeris then hammers his shoulder into it as hard as possible in an attempt to knock it off the side of the bridge.
He suddenly appears on the bridge after the violent attack and there's an awkward beat before he backpedals quickly.
I wonder what that was.
Tassira steps a few feet to the south and fires a blast of lightning at the creeper menacing Emi.
Got to break this bottleneck!" Kayleigh says to Tassira as she slips past the mage to take up a position between Nebbin and Emi . Raising her dagger before her face, the cleric feints a stab at the creeper blocking access to the bridge in the hopes that'll give Emi and opening to cut it down.