Iona kills another rat, but as the chanting finishes, two more appear. As soon as they appear, the chanting start again, but this time it is shorter and different. It quickly stops and a beam of fire passes through the doorway and hits Viktor straight on. The group can now see the caster outside the house. "Your gear will now be mine." One of the rats also manages to sink its teeth in the Paladin's leg.
While Bakji did feel bad for Viktor, the enemy had finally made the mistake of showing his face as it seemed his ability to produce his creatures had run out.
He pulled the bow taunt again, lined up his shot, and prepared to fire as soon as the mage tried to move or cast another spell.
Nicholas loads and fires another bolt, sure that they could deal with the small number of rats in short order and could get the better of this other caster.
Bakji aims at the caster and wait for an opening. Nicholas uses his crossbow to wound one of the rats. It is badly damaged, but still standing.
Slashy slashy!
The rat dodges the shield of the Paladin and get its teeth in the Viktor's leg. The fight starts to take its toll on the holy warrior.
"A caster so... are these things even real?" Iona asked herself mostly. though she turned her attention back to the rats before her. 'They still are able to do damage to my friends, thus it cannot stand.'
Iona slashed at the rat before Viktor once more to get them out of the way so they could hopefully reach the caster.
Iona slashes at the rat with her sword, but can't get through the thick hide. The rats attack Viktor again, but their teeth only scrape the metal of his armor. The caster moves forward, giving Bakji a chance to send his arrow flying. Just as the arrow is about to hit, it bounces off an invisible barrier. Using a ranseur, the enemy tries to attack the Paladin, but the blade doesn't have enough force to hack through the armor.
Nicholas moves forward a little and fires a crossbow bolt at the enemy caster trying to discern it's nature.
Bakji Takes a step back and fires another arrow.
Nicholas and Bakji attack the caster with their bows. Nicholas misses, but Bakji's arrow sink into the caster's arm. Now that he is visible, you are able to discern that he is a half-orc. Though from the look of it, he seems more orc than whatever the other half was.
The slashing continues!
The rats keep avoiding Viktor's attack while at the same time, one of them manages to get its teeth in the Paladin. The wounds are taking their toll on the warrior and his strength is almost gone.
Iona grit her teeth when she saw another bite go into Viktor. "Viktor, fall back, I have this!" Iona reassured him as she sliced into the rat before them. "Tend to you wounds, let me the the sword."
Iona finishes off the rat in front of her with one swift slice of her sword. The Half-Orc caster and the rat try to finish off Viktor but they can't pierce his armor.
Nicholas casts a snowball spell funneling arcane energy and hurls the freezing energy at the half orc spellcaster.
Bakji nods at Nicholas and pulls another arrow to fire upon the a$!%*&%# caster.
Viktor goes into a defensive posture as he heals the worst of the wounds. He spits out a globule of blood. "Cmon! You can do better than that!"
Nicholas hits the Half-Orc straight on, but the caster is able to shake off the secondary effect of the spell. Just as he is about to say something, Bakji's arrow hits him in the shoulder with a satisfying thud. The rat on Viktor's side tries to bite him, but doesn't even come close this time.
Iona, seeing the foe before her fall, turns her attention to the rat before Viktor and swung once more.
Iona kills the last rat that stands in the way to reach the caster. Growling with rage, the Half-Orc tries to finish off Viktor, but the sharp blade of his ranseur only hits the large tower shield.
Feeling not on the verge of death anymore, Viktor returns the attack on the half-orc.
Viktor's powerful blow headed towards their mysterious foe convinces Nicholas to hold off on using more potent magic so fires off a minor spell again.
The group focuses its attack om the caster. Bakji's arrow sink in the door frame while Viktor's sword is deflected by an invisible force. Only Nicholas magic manages to hit the target. The lone rat in the room continues its assault on the Paladin. The rat misses again and squeakes with annoyance.
Iona stepped behind Viktor and swung at the last rat within the room.
With one swift swing, Iona completely decapitates the last rat. Now everyone can turn their attention to the caster just outside the house. Aiming just right, the Half-Orc thrust his ranseur at Viktor. The blade digs deep in the Paladin's chest, piercing his armor and leave a critical wound. "Ah! The rest of you should be easy now that you won't be hiding behind that door!"
Nicholas reconsiders and casts a snowball spell funneling arcane energy and hurls the freezing energy at the spellcaster trying to put him down for good.
Bakji pulls another arrow aggressively and mutters words causing the bow to glow with divine energy.
Nicholas sends another magical snowball at the ennemy. The spell hits him on the head. He staggers for a second with an empty look in his eyes. He first collapse on one knee and then fall to the side. The lack of breathing noise coming from the half-orc confirms that the threat as been neutralize.
"Who was he some cultist?" Nicholas casts detect magic but stays back to let those with healing magic get to Viktor. Once Victor is alright he tries to identify and magical gear on their mystery attacker.
The moment their foe was down, Iona dropped her shield, sheathed her blade, and ran to Viktor's side. Kneeling down next to him she placed her hand upon his chest and calling upon Iomedae's blessing to heal him.
"I don't know." Iona answered. "Can you and Bakji check while I get Viktor back up?" She asked with her attention still on Viktor.
Viktor wakes with a gurgle, blood running from the side of his mouth. Then he gasps, choking and coming to his side to spit the rest of it out. "Oh hell..." He looks up and gives a weak grin. "I'll be damned, we won."
Bakji attempts to figure out something via the body of the summoner that attacked them.
Iona gave a long shaky sigh. "Good... we didn't lose you." Iona said as she offered an apologetic smile. "Come, let us see if you can stand." She said as she stood and offered a hand.
"He was a vicious little wretch. One less scum in the city. We've a long way to go but it's something."
Looking over your foe, Bakji realises that he is dead and no healing, whether natural or magical could fix that. Scanning over the corpse, you find some magical items. He has a wand and the ranseur is magical.
Wand of Magic Missile, 3rd level, 11 charges
A ranseur of the gargoyle appears to have a head crafted of obsidian, but is in fact as hard and resilient as steel. This weapon functions as a +1 ranseur that grants a +4 bonus on disarm checks rather than the typical +2 bonus a ranseur grants. Up to 5 times per day as a swift action, the wielder of a ranseur of the gargoyle can cause its skin to harden for 1 round, gaining a +2 enhancement bonus to its natural armor score.
"This is a wand of Magic Missile, more advanced than most with a few charges left. The Ranseur is magical and extremely good at disarming people, it allows the wielder to take on an aspect of a gargoyle a few times a day hardening their skin." He looks to the others. "That was a tough and unexpected fight, I think our next target should be Blackwing but are we being foolhardy if we press ahead today?"
"Yes, I must rest and regain my strength."
Iona, seeing Viktor be able to stand on his own goes to seek out the reason they had come to begin with. The chance that Anevia's wife may be here had already passed, now she looked to see if the woman left anything behind.
Bakji nods to Viktor "We have the small cache of supplies and a note that might be able to lead us to our Eagle Watch compatriot. We should get Viktor back on his feat in haste, I'd rather not give looters and whatever other forces that be any more time to destroy or kill more than what they've already done." he offered as his input.
He picked up the Ransuer and looked at the others "I'm less suited for this type of weapon than the rest of you, but I can at least carry it till we find someone to barter it to for better supplies." he offered.
Iona's search doesn't uncover anything else. The group slowly makes its way back to the base for some healing. The way is still littered with damaged structure, but is seems less severe than the first time you went through... Or maybe you are starting to get used to it. Once you get inside the vault, Anevia's walks towards you. "Did you find anything?" When she notices the in what state the group is in, she seems worried. "What happened out there? You look like a building fell on you!"
"There was some, creature there. I believe they where an orc... or maybe half-orc." Iona explained. "Along with some rats that seemed to keep popping up." She said with a sigh.
"We found the cache and it had a note in it for you." Iona told her as she held it out for her to take and read. "We didn't read it because it was addressed to you after all."
"He was summoning the rats so some kind of spellcaster of one kind or another." Nicholas takes whatever passes as a seat and takes the chance to rest his feet.
Anevia takes the note and start reading it. Tears appear has she reads it. "She is alive!" She looks at the group with a smile. "She is alive and leading a resistance group. Not all is lost!" She wipes her eyes and scan the note again. "They are at the Defender’s Heart. I know where that is, let me show you." Orange star It says that you need to use the password “Silverstrong” to identify yourself as friendly. Horgus joins the group. "It is not close by, some of us might have a hard time making it there. If you could get a cart or something, we could make it and maybe even bring some supplies." Anevia turns to Horgus. "This will be a first, but I agree with him. Also, now that I know that Irabeth is alive, maybe you should go look at the site that Aravashnial was talking about. He has being really quiet since you left."
"I plan to go see the site that Aravashnial spoke of even if I had to go alone." Iona said with a nod. "To be fully honest I was wanting to go there first if there was a chance there would be people there I didn't want to risk waiting... now we are worn down..." She said with a sigh as she gave the others of the group a slight glare. "And if there are people there who need our protection we won't be much help." She stated before she walked over and poked Viktor with the wand.
"How do you feel?" She asked him. He still seemed rather pale to her.
"Slightly better." Viktor says, still holding the yawning wounds.
"Hmm, let me try something else" Iona said as she closed her eyes and whispered a prayer to Iomedae.