Steave leads the rest of the group along the eastern wall with his eyes peeled.
As you approach roughly three quarters through the cavern, a quick, wet sloshing noise is followed by the sudden presence of strange creatures, like a bat crossed with a squid, their slimy tentacles swinging out as they swoop down on Steve, Aleister, and Leander.
"Watch out!" Menedemus will yell as the creatures attacks.
If possible, he will move himself to be between the NPCs and the bat-squids, and then follow with a vertical swing to the closer one.
Aleister backs away from his assailant and utters a few arcane words, though no visual effecr can be seen.
Aleister is able to identify the creatures as Darkmantles, subterranian predators that attack by dropping onto their prey.
Anevia eases her charge against a wall, grabs her bow, and clumsily tries to shoot the one that missed Steave, her balance a little off.
The creatures screech as one of their kind is struck by an arrow, and all of them shoot upward to the cieling to retreat.
"What is happening?" Aravashniel demands to know, gripping his staff hard and looking around, as though it were doing any good
Steave says, "cluster around the archers and hit them when they dive to attack." He moves next to Anevia and Aravashniel and readies to hit a darkmantle that gets within melee. "Aravashniel, three strange flying creatures, like a bat crossed with a squid, attacking with their slimy tentacles."
"Darkmantles," he says. [b]"Be careful. They will never stay in a fight, relying solely on hit-and-run tactics, and if they need to, they can cast Darkness." He mutters an incantation and casts Mage Armor upon himself.
"Find cover if you can!" the wizard shouts.
In the open cavern, there is no cover. Just wide, clear space for you to be swooped down upon from. The cieling goes about twenty five feet high, sometimes lower in places where stalagtites hand periously down. You're thankfully far enough from where the city was attacked that they don't seem to be loose or ready to fall.
"Understood" Menedemus will say, moving close to Aeryx, ready to hit one of the Darkmantles as soon as they swept down.
Leander attacks one of the Darkmantles up at the cieling with a bow, his tiefling eyes letting him zero in on one of the monsters above.
The creatures don't linger on the cieling too long, dropping down onto you soon enough. Menedemus, Aleister, and Horgus are the new targets.
Three swings, three misses.
Steave misses and misses again as the darkmantle flaps to the ceiling .
He says, "that one is mine." and readies another protective slam on an incoming darkmantle.
Aleiser conjurers a familiar ball of acidic goo and tosses it at the dark mantle.
Keeping close to Aeryx in case the Darkmantles used the same tactic from before, Menedemus will slash at the one that attacked him.
Annoyed by the flying bags of wind Leander took aim again. These things were coming down and staying down, one way or another.
Her shield forward, Lisandra scans the room for the creatures, though she struggles to see them in the darkness. Calmly, she patiently waits for their approach before her eyes and hands suddenly glow with radiant energy that bursts in the cavern for a mere moment.
The Darkmantles soak up what punishment lands on them, then fly back to the cieling. Leander's arrow strikes one of them, but still able to go for more, they seek out Lisandra, Leander, and Steave.
The arrow punctures the leather hide of the darkmantle beside Lisandra, and it gives a few more weak squirms before going limp on the cave floor.
When one of the darmantles close in, Menedemus will attack it with an upper swing.
Menedemus hands will start to shake as soon as he doesn't hit his enemy
H-how could I miss again?...
Why was I only able to weaken that undead? Maybe that alone was my purpose, and now I should only stay still waiting for my final rest? Yes, surely I must soon die for one of the others here...
It's more than a fair trade, my worthless life for one of theirs. Look at how Aeryx slayed that beast in a shot! I could never do such a thing, and my slight contributions until now are only a proof of that...
Menedemus will stay close to Aeryx, his eyes darting left and right while his body start trembling slightly.
Aleister waits for a clear shot before throwing another glob of acid.
Steave says, "Good shot, Aeryx!" and readies another protective slam on an incoming darkmantle.
Anevia tries to conserve her arrows and instead helps Aravashniel stay clear of the swooping creatures.
The creatures do the swooping thing again, this time to Aleister and Steave.
Aleister refuses to let up his acidic assault.
Steave clips one as it tries to move away. He says, "Good shot, Aleister!" and readies another protective slam on an incoming darkmantle.
Steave manages to bring down the second Darkmantle with several impactful shield bashes.
A primal viciousness triggered in Menedemus's head: his self-hate turned into frustration, and frustration turned into a sadistic desire to inflict the greatest amount of pain possible on that flying creature. His blood boiling in his veins,he will move to the remaining darkmantle to strike a blow.
Menedemus and Aeryx's blows end the final darkmantle's life, leaving the three creatures lying dead on the ground, and your way a little less dangerous, O Holy Roach Roasters.
"Is anyone injured?" Steave asks.
"Aravashniel, are dead darkmantles good for anything?"
Steave will give the nod to Aeryx to move out.
"Not particularly, especially in our current position. We should leave these all here and continue on our way."
"We'll at least it's a step up from vermin." Aleister says moving away from the fallen enemies.
"Let's go people. We're not getting out of here without walking." Steave motivates.
After a second to retake hold of himself after his violent ouburst, Menedemus will nod to Steave and follow the group, turning back to throw a quick glance to the room where they found the darkmantles.
The narrow end of the cavern opens up into a smaller passage. A small campfire and well-used bedroll, along with a few utensils and tools, sits near the opening in the far wall of this cavern. A haggard and dirty male dwarf stands staring toward the passage you come from, muttering lowly to himself, mad words rapidly spoken beneath his breath as just stares. He's covered in a thin sheer of blue magic, and he's had his hand up and waiting for you this whole time, having heard the commotion in the cavern.
The second you come into view, he shouts out, "The crusade took their sweet time!" and unleashes a magical bolt on both of the frontmost marchers, Steave and Menedemus.
Steave watches his companions get hit by the dwarf's magic and charges to meet the threat.
"Wha..." Menedemus manages to say before being struck bu the bolt of magic.
Feeling that it would have been impossible to reason with the dwarf, Menedemus will close in, position himself at the side of Steave, and strike the enemy, to prevent him from further harming the party.
Aleister sticks with his signiture tactic of toss Acid at stuff.