Kizziar swoops low over the attackers' front line, suggesting to one of the barbarians directly engaged with the Hellknights, "Run for your life! You'll die if you don't flee now!"
Urashu will move to behind a step behind and to the side of Morvan and fire an Acid Arrow Spell at one of the oncoming figures.
Morvan prepares to advance with the formation and to strike at the first barbarian to come within range.
Kallant holds his warbow and looses an arrow at the first human barbarian he can see.
While his conjured tentacles continue to obstruct the barbarians, Vespartius attempts to turn them against one another with a spell of confusion, targeting the center of their onrushing horde.
Kizziar continues to hover while cloaking himself in invisibility.
The turtle formation is now mostly complete, and a few spells and arrows are loosed, though Paralictor Ekdikésis growls to hold until the last of the Hellknights have managed to successfully disengage from the assault and join the formation, not wanting to risk friendly fire until necessary.
Melii nocks an arrow in her bow, waiting for the order to fire.
Urashu holds his spot, dismissing the dismay at having fired ahead of the Paralictor's orders; he can deal with that later.
Kallant holds fire waiting for the order to fire.
Seeing the barbarians advancing toward him, Vespartius calls on the innate power of his bonded ring of sustenance to float 20 ft straight up.
With just a few exceptions, the Hellknights are assembled, which is timely, because with a roar the hoard smashes into the front line, spears and axes meeting thick armor and shields.
Melii smiles grimly and unleashes hell on the barbarians.
Vespartius continues to float upward to around 40 ft. He then tears a hole in the fabric of the plane, opening a 30 ft deep extradimensional pit beneath the horde but far enough away from the Hellknight line not to hinder it at the moment.
Meanwhile, the tentacles he summoned continue to grasp at the enemy rear.
Kizziar makes an aerial charge down towards one of the barbarians approaching Vespartius, shrieking at the top of his lungs before stabbing at his target's back with his stinger, dispelling his invisibility.
+ poison
Kallant looses his readied arrow when the barbarians get within the 60 feet of his darkvision.
Then, he drops his warbow behind him and draws his Silversheen readying to strike.
The barbarian's axe slides off the armor of force as Morgan's heavy mace slams into the warrior. Smiling as he feels Asmodeus's blessing flow through him, Morvan lays into the Ulfen, swinging his mace in two hands.
The battle quickly turns, as the disciplined and magically superior Hellknights let loose, spells and arrows flying and melee weapons striking true. Almost a score of the barbarians are slain, and many more are left disabled. They are undeterred though, climbing over the bodies of their dead, their glowing eyes and feral screams unrelenting as they swarm your patch of light.
Kallant grits his teeth as a barbarian's maul breaks some of his ribs. He roars knowing that his hellknight armor would have protected him.
He drives his shining greatsword down into a barbarian, and then backslashes to return to the high guard position.
Urashu will fire a shot into a nearby enemy and then reload with a standard bullet.
Melii fires another barrage of arrows.
Further shrugging off the hits of the raging horde, Morvan continues striking the barbarians before him, seeking to lay them low, mace held in an iron grip in both hands.
Your world turns into a confused whirling blur as a solid, metallic... something... strikes you in midair, wrapping around your and pulling you away from the fight.
The barbarian hoard is quickly being whittled down, them losing five or more for every Hellknight that goes down. They quickly begin retreating, running surprisingly fast, sometimes even on all fours like beasts. A moment later you see why, as a screaming streak of fire slams into your formation.
Realizing that struggling against whatever grabbed him will have little to no effect, Vespartius tries to twist his head around to see what it is while shouting "HELP!" as loud as he can.
Meanwhile, his summoned tentacles attempt to restrain the fleeing foes.
Hearing his master's cries, Kizziar launches another flying charge towards whatever is grappling Vespartius.
plus poison
The explosion knocks many Hellknights down, and even those that manage to keep their feet are confused and dazed, wobbling around and shaking their heads in a vain attempt to clear them. The Paralictor, still intimidatingly radiant, points towards the retreating barbarians, and one of his squad flies off quickly enough to leave a ripple of dust in her wake, sniping the retreating figures with spells to detain them. The Paralictor starts barking orders and with typical Hellknight efficiency, the camp is brought back to order. Those who can heal begin doing so, spells and channeled positive energy called forth. The dead and missing are recorded, and the bodies of fallen enemies are laid out. All in all seven Hellknights are dead, and one missing. A minor loss, considering the size of the force that was laid against you.
As clean up operations come to a close, a Godclaw signifer comes to find each of you. The Paralictor requests your presence, and the signifer escorts you to his tent.
Inside the tent Paralictor Ekdikésis is still in his bloody underpadding, tending to his sword while another Hellknight tends to a deep gash on his back. You salute, and he lazily returns it, his eyes dilated and breath shallow.
"Thank you for coming," he says, his voice raspy.
"It seems that after rolecall, one of your Order is missing. His body is not among the dead or the living. Do you know his whereabouts?"
Morvan quickly stands after the blast knocks him on his back, ready to face down a resurgent charge from the barbarians. However, they continue running, and he finds himself merely able to stare after them. Casting a spell on himself to begin the healing process, Morvan turns to look over his squad and notices that Vespartius is missing, as well as the majority being heavily wounded. "Signifier Trasalor, we may have need of your wand to at least partially patch us up. Do any of you know where Signifier Caudex went?"
Morvan grimaces as the Godclaw signifier comes to get them. Since Vespartius had yet to report in, he suspected that he was about to receive word of Vespartius's corpse being found. Though irritated that Vespartius hadn't formed up with the Order of the Gate soldiers when ordered, he did his best to control it. He was now properly clad in his armor, as befit giving a report.
He saluted the Paralictor as he entered the tent. Prepared for news that Vespartius's body had been found, Morvan is surprised when he is told that he is missing. Responding to the Paralictor's question, Morvan is unable to keep his anger at Vespartius from creeping into his voice slightly. "I presume, Paralictor, you are referring to Signifier Caudex. I ordered my squad to form up shortly before your order to Turtle, heavy south. He reported that his familiar servant had seen the group of charging Ulfen, and said he had several spells that could help if he had clear line of sight. From what I can tell, he then moved off away from the main group to a separate location from which to strike. I was unaware of his decision to do so, or I would have countermanded that immediately. If you have not found his body, then I surmise it may have been carried off by who or whatever was behind this assault on our camp. I know nothing of his current whereabouts should he be alive, but if he is, he will find himself digging our latrines for the remainder of the journey - at a minimum, and without the aid of magic."
Urashu nods at Maralictor Fellis, pulling out his wand as he surveys the scene. No, Sir, I haven't seen Vespartius since the initial charge. He offers everyone a use of the wand, noting that most of the others were hit harder than him.
At the meeting, Urashu stands at attention, again reviewing the fight in his mind, trying remember any hint of Vespartius location.
"Oww. That's going to leave a bruise." Kallant struggles to stand. His pajamas continue to burn with a slight glow and a wisps of smoke. Seeing the enemy retreating, he cleans and sheathes his Silversheen.
After he unsuccessfully looks around for his missing squady, he accompanies Morvan to the paralictor. His pajamas are still unclean from the battle with obvious wounds.
With nothing constructive to add to the conversation of officers, he keeps silent and eyes front.
Perception: You cannot see him.
"I presume, Paralictor, you are referring to Signifier Caudex. I ordered my squad to form up shortly before your order to Turtle, heavy south. He reported that his familiar servant had seen the group of charging Ulfen, and said he had several spells that could help if he had clear line of sight. From what I can tell, he then moved off away from the main group to a separate location from which to strike. I was unaware of his decision to do so, or I would have countermanded that immediately. If you have not found his body, then I surmise it may have been carried off by who or whatever was behind this assault on our camp. I know nothing of his current whereabouts should he be alive, but if he is, he will find himself digging our latrines for the remainder of the journey - at a minimum, and without the aid of magic."
The paladin smirks a little bit at your comment, nodding knowingly.
"Well for now, lets focus on getting him back before anything worse happens. Do you have anything of his we can use as a scrying link? Tracking him down otherwise will prove problematic. And we're short of resources as is."
Morvan is surprised by the Paralictor's decision to locate Vespartius, as he thought Vespartius would just be left behind. "I believe we should have some of his gear in his tent. We will retrieve it."
"Thank you," the paladin replies, dismissing you with a wave of his hand.
As the squad exits the tent, Kizziar comes diving out of the sky, landing in front of them. "Vespartius was grabbed by some kind of flying creature. I didn't get a good look at it, but it grappled him and flew off. If it would be any use in our search for him, be advised that I can contact Asmodeus and ask some yes or no questions," he informs them telepathically.
"Alright, let me get my armor on. Maybe get healed up, too." Kallant mentions waiting for the orders that they plan to immediately pursue.
Morvan considers the Imp for a moment before motioning it to follow him to Vespartius's tent and softly saying, "That notification during the battle might have been a bit more useful. If Signifier Caudex was going to go off alone, did he not prepare any invisibility spells?"
Morvan will go to Vespartius's tent to retrieve any of Vespartius's belongings that might be there.
Yes, we will be sure to obtain your explicit approval before launching such escapades in the future. Vespartius had no invisibility magic prepared, as illusion is one of his opposition schools. He believed the he could evade the barbarians easily enough, and thought that the importance of obstructing the portal quickly outweighed the risk of another foe approaching undetected. Evidently he was in error, Kizziar mentally responds.
He then searches Vespartius' bed. It looks like this scroll box of his is the best we'll get. Perhaps we should seek out the most accomplished diviner in the caravan?