Seeing Tomaru fall, Thordak's eyes go wide and he roars in anger and swings maniacally at the wrathspawn.
Praxim fires a barrage of arrows, killing one Wrathspawn and wounding another. The archons back away hastily, and Lym steps through to the scene of the battle, to find Tomaru down in a widening pool of his own blood.
Thordak cuts down down another Wrathspawn, but there are two remaining...
Shrieking with anger, and ignoring their losses, the Wrathspawn attack. One attacks the dwarf, hacking and biting.
The other sees an opportunity, and vents its sinful wrath on the prone form of the unconscious cleric...
”No!!” Praxim shouts. Ignoring his own danger, he slips through Lym’s space, past Tomaru to the other side, then bends down and touches the downed cleric.
”Healing is supposed to be your job,” he quips as the Desnan’s eyes fly open.
Lym's eyes widen when she sees Tomaru's state - and she subjects the nearest Wrathspawn to her own kind of wrath; fire kindles at her fingertips and flies away, screaming for blood!
Thordak swings at any and all wrathspawns that are still standing.
Tomaru tries to cast Heal on himself before standing up.
The Wrathspawn screeches at Praxim as he moves to help Tomaru.
Lym's flames scorch the nearest spawn, catching it alight. For a brief second, it is a hellish figure; wreathed in flames, screeching in rage, waving its greataxe. But only for a moment, as it the flames consume it and it dies.
Only one remains. Thordak's mighty blow cleaves the last spawn in two, a gory split from collar bone through the groin. The two halves of the body fall apart in a spray of grayish blood, splattering all who are near.
Tomau's wall blocks the rest of the room from view. Silence, save for Toamru's spell, envelops the room.
"There's more enemies past the wall"Tomaru tells Praxim and Lym as he releases a healing wave and moves off of the Teleport circle. "Six women that cast Magic Missile. A lot of them."
”Is that another teleportation circle, and maybe it goes back to the other room. Either way, we need everybody off of this one.”
Rexil looks around at all the outsiders and back to the teleportation circle.
”Maybe because you’re bigger, it takes longer for the ring to work,” he suggests to the archon that failed to teleport. ”You should try again...uh...please.”
The shield archons look straight ahead at the blue circle, aligned in a shield wall. The three arbiters are behind them, as instructed. Finally, one speaks.
Then the other adds: He turns a solemn face towards Rexil.
The arbiters flit about behind the archons, the 'whirr' and 'click' of their wings making the only sound. They too, stare forward at the blue circle, waiting.
'click click'
"Deviation from an assigned task..." says one.
'whirrrrr'
"...is tantamount to anarchy." says another.
click whirrr
The third only stares ahead, silent.
"I have a spell that makes me immune to Magic missile," Lym says, "but I can only cast it on myself. This is an oversight I should correct at the earliest opportunity... Hmm. I could summon something fast and tough, like a lightning elemental, and drop it in the middle of them… No. No; won't work. I can't see them. An earth elemental, though; I could give it orders and then send it burrowing through the rock to attack them from below. We could attack during the confusion."
Turning to Tomaru, Lym reaches out and brushes her fingertips along his cheek. "... Are you well enough to fight, or do you need rest?"
”Huh? She asked you to go into the circle, but it didn’t work, so she went ahead of you because she’s smaller. That doesn’t mean she wants you to hold anything. She was changing the order of entrance, so now it’s our job to follow.”
With no more enemies in sight, Thordak's size and wrath recedes... for now. Finding his breathing labored as typical with him, "I'm gonna need a moment. Just a few moments. I've got ta catch me breath." As he goes down on one knee for a moment to rest, "So what are we gonna do about those on the other side of the wall. They've got those blasted endless magical bolts that nearly killed the lad there," he nods toward Tomaru. "That really hacks me off! I just wanna cut their heads off and their arms and legs and whatever else I can find ta cut off because THAT'S WHAT THEY DESERVE! Just cut 'em all ta hell I say! TA HELL!" the dwarf exclaims, now having to work even harder to catch his breath.
click click click
The eyes of the arbiters turn toward Rexil in unison.
"Changing the order?" says one arbiter.
"Changing?" inquires the second.
"Change?" adds the third.
Unmoving, the archons reply:
says one.
booms the second.
The third arbiter, the 'quiet' one, speaks to Rexil: "You are a servant of the paladin of Erastil. You should understand the necessity of order. Our last instruction from the Summoner was to form a shield wall: archons in front, we arbiters behind. This was the Primary Directive. When the Summoner said to step aside, that did not change the Primary Directive: archons in front, we arbiters behind."
”Uh...change isn’t the beginning of chaos—the only things that never change are dead things, but even dead things rot away, cause that’s natural. When Mokmurian came and took over my tribe and started wars, that weren’t natural—that’s chaos.”
He thinks for a minute, then smiles. ”What’s the main thing Mistress Lym asked you to do? What’s your main purpose in being here, cause it ain’t guarding this one room.”
If Thordak will come to him, Tomaru will cast Heal on the dwarf.
"Lym, we should try the blue circle. If it doesn't get us back, I can get us to the archons then we can get back here."
Finally able to catch his breath, he walks over to the others. "How ya doin', lad? Ya okay? Yer up and about so that's a pretty good sign." The dwarf then squints as if he's concentrating on something before finally shaking his head as if he's trying to free himself from... something mentally. "And that sounds like a good plan, lad," he nods. "A good plan."
The archons thump their shields in unison on the stone floor. But they otherwise do not move, or turn to face Rexil.
The third arbiter continues to buzz about near Rexil.
whirrrrrrr...click click...
"What do you mean, servant of a servant of Erastil? We have been given the Prime Directive, have we not?"
If Lym agrees, the two of us try the blue circle. If that doesn't take us back to Rexil and the summons, then Tomaru will Teleport them to that location.
"Let's give it a go."
"Arbiters, advance and scout, if you would," Lym says. "Shield archons, one on me and one on Tomaru as we move on, if you would be so kind. Rexil, when we get home to Castle Lym, I will personally enchant your club as a reward for your sterling work. You are learning well. Thordak, do you need me to touch up your magical protections?"
”I’m pretty sure she said something like arbiters scout and archons protect Lym and Tomaru. Well, they ain’t here, they’re in there, so why aren’t you doing everything you can to fulfill your ‘prime directive’? Breaking orders sounds pretty chaotic to me.”
The archons look at one another, and without a word, one steps into the blue circle and disappears.
Lym and Tomaru arrive on the red circle. A very confused archon and three arbiters look on first in surprise, then in horror.
booms the shield archon.
whirrrr "Indeed, we can't..." says one arbiter.
click click "...follow the Prime Directive..." adds the second.
bzzzzzzzclick "...if you keep changing things." scolds the third.
”I just convinced them to stop standing aside and follow you!” Rexil adds his own voice of scorn, before realizing who he’s talking to, and goes (whatever colour stone giants turn when they’re blushing).
”I mean...hi.”
"Hello?" Lym says, blinking in confusion. "Is ... something the matter?"
”You told them to step aside, so they did. These people take everything you say like literal.”
"Very well, I have clearly been unclear," Lym says, and she turns to the Outsiders. "Let me clarify: this group must stay together. Unless I specifically countermand this instruction, do your best to stay with the group." She blinks. "We appear to be short an archon."
Tomaru makes eyes at Lym. "You're so sexy when you're all authoritative." He goes into the teleportation circle. "I've got to get back. Our enemies might get through that wall at any time."
”He just stepped into the circle. It wasn’t working before.”
After a minute or two of coordination, everyone (summons included) are set in the small space with the red and the blue circle. It is very cramped with three Large creatures and the rest of you, all trying not to step in the blue circle.
Tomaru's wall still blocks access to what you know is a much larger room.
Do the casters seem to be trying to break through?
The wall is not dismissable, so maybe Lym can disintegrate it or Thordak can bust it.
I miss Aurora.
”Rexil, you’re a stone giant, aren’t you?”
”Yeah. Why?”
Pause
Pause
Pause
”Oh, right! Sure thing! You,” he says, pointing to one of the shield archons. ”Help.”
Rexil begins beating on the stone wall with his club. Praxim made it magical, so it should withstand the damage.
Rexil does an average of 27 points per hit, so that would be three hits to open a five-foot section, and which point we are likely going to be bombarded with magic missiles. Praxim directs him to almost break through in a couple of places (2 5-foot sections) so they can break the bottleneck more quickly.
Do the casters seem to be trying to break through?
The wall is not dismissable, so maybe Lym can disintegrate it or Thordak can bust it.
I miss Aurora.
Thordak moves to assist in busting a hole in Tomaru's wall.
"Please assist Rexil," Lym asks of the archon he 'asked' for help.
To the other, she says: "Set up a defensive line here, please."
And to the arbiters: "Behind the defensive line with me, please. Try not to draw attention when the battle begins."
Rexil bashes his way through the stone wall with some effort. As the first five-foot section crumbles open...
...nothing happens. All is quiet.
This long chamber is filled with practice dummies dressed in battered and scorched suits of armor and a few contraptions bearing sharp implements. Several doors and two open corridors exit the chamber along each side wall. An opening in the opposite wall leads to what appears to be a meeting hall. Continual Flames on the walls provide light for the room.
"Well that was anti-climactic. Let's pile out of here and quickly look around."
Praxim holds a hand up first and scans for evil auras. If he senses none, he allows the others to move out.
No evil auras can be detected within range.
What's in the open corridors?
Halfway down the large training room, you can see each corridor ends in a small chamber much like the one you arrived in to get here. And, as you would expect, each chamber contains another pair of red and blue teleportation circles.