Calla snarls and continues to wait for an opening to attack.
Rhys watches the battle unfurl, yet while the arrow is notched he doesn't let it fly.
I want to see their mettle...
Rokans flurry of blade strokes would have slain a man he is quickly reminded that these are not men as his blades slip between ribs to find nothing to stab. Edgar's blow meanwhile strikes true! His hammer crashes through the skeletons ribcage sending bone spinters flying in a cloud of debris!
The skeleton behind Rokan lashes out with its claws and rakes a terrible wound across his back making the rogue react in shock and pain .
"Argh, gods damn these things. Sorry edgar, but my blades are of little use against these things."
The instant he has an opening Edgar will push up to the next skeleton and try to smash it as well.
"It looks like it's up to you, Edgar, the rest of us are trapped here."
Calla's eyes widen as she watches Edgar work. "Ah may have misjudged you, guardsman. Very impressive.
Stepping in front of the injured blond, she'll wave her blade at the remaining skeleton. "Fall back, creature, or your final death will be at hand."
Edgar's hammer absolutely annihilates the skeleton ahead of you with remarkable ease boosted by Levash's inspirational abilities. Calla's threatening words fall on the brainless creature's ears as the creature lunges forward adn scrapes its claws across edgar's shield looking to rip his throat out.
Assuming Rhy continues holding unless he wants to do soemthign extra neat.
Calla steps up to impose herself between the remaining skeleton and her injured companion.
"Bind that up before it gets infected in this filth," she orders.
She holds her sword at a casual guard position, confident now that Edgar can take care of the last of these foes but ready should something happen and she need to defend the others in the tunnel.
"You alright there, Rokan?"
He watches the man get hurt and consequently move out of harm's way; not the nastiest of wounds from where Rhys can gauge, yet he isn't the burglar. He still does not raise his bow.
As he raises his hammer yet again, Edgar mutters to himself. "Stupid undead getting in my way, stupid hellknights...grahhh" He brings his hammer down as hard as he can on the last skeleton.
Edgar easily dusts the last skeleton leaving you alone with piles of bones, dead hellknights, and silence.
"Rhys, do you hear any pursuit?"
LeVash will quickly loot the hellknights of any easily transportable items while Janiven searches for the next marker.
Dusting off his hammer, Edgar glowers. "Annoyances. Lets keep moving!" Edgar walks over to Jenavia, and keeps watch waiting for her to lead on.
Janiven starts searching for the mark as soon as the dust settles from the last skeleton.
Janiven quickly finds the mark and motions for the rest of you to follow as you hear the sounds of pursuit in the distance.
You first come to an intersection shortly afterwards with three branching tunnels you find yourself relieved that Janiven finds the mark quickly.
Passing by a number of intersections you come across an entrance to the sewer where much of the run off from the city is allowed within. As you watch and consider breaking through the bars to the city beyond you duck back into the darkness as a group of armigers shine their lantern into the entrance for a few moments before moving on. As they move on you see the last rays of sunlight dip under the horizon and leaving you in darkness before you move one.
Hurray!
"How much farther is this place, Janiven? Now that the sun's down, it's even more dangerous. Not to mention the smell isn't improving."
"At least the danger has increased for our pursuers as well"
Edgar quickly tells everyone what the "hellknights" really were.
"I figured they might have been armigers." Janiven says. "Good thing we ran into the undead instead of them. Skeletons don't run off to alert others to your position."
As you chat briefly about your suspicions of how they managed to get ahead of you you hear a blood curdling screech and Rhys give a startled cry from the back of the group as he pushes Morisono out of the way of a goblin bursting from a pile of garbage and attempt to skewer Rhys or the boy. Though given its blundering inaccuracy it's difficult to tell who was the target. Before any of you can bring arms to bear the goblin practically leaps in stark raving terror and barrels down the hallway where you came squeaking in horror as it does so.
Rhys curses. "Little sh!t almost got me." Then runs off into the darkness with lethal intent in his eyes.
"Wait!" Janiven calls.
Rhys calls back from the darkness, almost a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "It'll warn others. I'll catch up! Go!"
Janiven turns to the rest of the group torn between leading you to safety and retrieving the wayward Rhys.
"Fool! We're already runnin', what does it matter if another group is chasin' us?
"Lead on, Janiven. We'll have to hope Rhys finds his way out of this dung and can rejoin us later."
If Edgar makes to follow Rhys, Calla grabs him and tries to pull him along with her, in Janiven's wake.
"Come on, Guardsman. After the way you took care of those skeletons, Ah think we might need your hammer. The tusker ain't your soft lover to require your protection, is he? He can take care of himself!"
"Hmp. Well, with him pounding hellbent down the tunnel, maybe we won't be quite as noticeable."
Dammit, darkvision would have been useful down here.
Edgar pushes past Calla muttering that you wouldn't understand and chases behind Rhys.
Janiven shakes her head. "Come on. They know what the marks look like. We don't have time to spare."
You move on down the tunnel two members down.
You don't get far down the tunnel before you enter a room with several tunnels and a large grate over looking the harbor. As Janiven begins searching for the mark the stars from outside suddenly wink out as a darkness from within overtakes them and takes the shape of something demonic. The shadow glares down at the lot of you with a pair of red glowing eyes. As it speaks its stark white teeth can be clearly seen.
By the terms of my wretched contract I am required to suffer you one minute of life to escape my presence before I render your bones into paste and feed you to the ooze bugs. You may entertain me with your screams for mercy now.
Janiven starts to look for the marks though she's visibly frightened by it. "Don't attack it." She says. Or encourage it.
Biting back a witty retort, Rokan turns to Janiven, "You heard the beast, 1 minute and counting, lets see how much distance we can put between us."
LeVash will cast guidance to help Janiven find the mark faster, then turn towards the darkness, his voice losing much of its habitual rasp, "What are the exact terms of your contract?"
LeVash will cast guidance to help Janiven find the mark faster, then turn towards the darkness, his voice losing much of its habitual rasp, "What are the exact terms of your contract?"
The only terms that matter to you, morsel, is the fine print about how much time I am allotted to keep you alive. Believe me when I say it will feel significant.
"It's a shadow demon. If it says it will give us a minute to flee, let's hope it's not lying because the five of us wouldn't stand a chance against it," Calla mutters, backing toward the entrance she came in.
"If Janiven can't find the way in 30 seconds, we'll have to go back and find a different way around."
Janiven finds the mark quickly and motions for you to follow. As all of you move with incredible alacrity down the passage way you hear the demon chuckle.
A pity. It's been too long since I've felt the sensual pleasure mortal flesh can provide...
Moving further down the tunnel Janiven stops for a minute to let everyone catch their breath.
"I'm sorry about that. I was hoping someone would have come down here and gotten rid of it by now. And I didn't have time to warn you."
Calla scowls. "Ah'd suggest making time next time. Ah had to follow you down here to safety, but Ah don't know where you're bringing us. Too many surprises, and Ah might decide Ah'm actually safer on mah own. Will that thing at least be able to stop any Hellknights chasin' us?"
"Sounds like that beast is working for someone, so the question is, does the mystery puppet master want the hellknights to catch us? The way it let us run, I can't shake the feelign we might be playing right into someones plans, and I don't appreciate being left out of the loop."
Janiven glares at Calla again and opens her mouth to say soemthign but is cut off as you are surrounded by the sounds of screams and pain cut off abruptly by the sounds of demonic laughter. Janiven closes her mouth all thoughts of pointless arguing lost and simply continues down the tunnel the silence and darkness playing hell on your imaginations after the creature you've encountered.
Feh, a demon. so no respect for the actual contract, then.
As they continue on, LeVash begins keeping an eye out for a cul-de-sac/hidey-hole or a sewer grate that is sufficiently near to an otherwise abandoned building above.
We need a moment to get our bearings and get information before we lose any more people, particularly Janiven.
Putting plenty of distance between you and the demon Janiven brightens up a little. "Not far now we just have to pass this large inter-oh s@$+...I hope someone has some fire handy."
Staring ahead you see a large pile of gunk and trash ahead of you. Crawling in and among it are a number of small handsized creatures the size of your hand like a cross between an ooze and an insect. They crawl about on long spindly gelatinous legs and regard you for a second before they scuttle towards you enmasse.
Group: better than ooze bugs
Torbles
Them: arbitrarily low
Group goes first!
"Wish Ah knew how to cast a nice fireball, but right now all Ah got is my steel," Calla mutters as she pulls her blade into a guard position and waits for the creatures to approach.
"And have Ah mentioned how much Ah loathe these sewers?"
Dotting
Are these individual creatures, or swarms?
Is there any chance of using Wild Empathy to defuse the situation? (LeVash has Vermin Heart, so he can use it with the Torbles.)
"What are these things?" calls out Rokan as he draws his short bow and takes aim at their small attackers. Cayden guide my aim he mutters as he lets fly an arrow.
LeVash winces as the arrow flies, still, worth a shot.
"Is anyone carrying any food? We may be able to get through this without having to light up the tunnel."
"Ah''m afraid not. Ah don't usually need to carry around rations when Ah'm in a city. Plus, Ah 'spect these things consider us to be enough food."
Janiven readies an arrow to fly and shakes her head at LeVash waiting to see what he's planning on doing before firing.
"Understood. Rude to bring your own anyway when invited to dinner."
Well, perhaps if I can deflect the largest, the others will follow its lead
Targetting the largest or most aggressive seeming of the torbles, LeVash casts Charm Animal.
The torbles advance in a wave of cooing oozey hilarity before one stops and regards the group with it's weaving eyestalks. Pausing, the others turn and regard the lead oozebug curiously fidgeting nervously on their gelatinous legs.
<quietly> "I'll try to move them off to the side. Head across, anc I'll follow."
LeVash approaches slowly, making similar cooing noises and speaking softly, keeping very aware of tone. He has no illusions that the creatures can understand his words, but it helps him keep his thoughts in order.
"This way, my little friends. You are the city, and so are we. We don't threaten you or compete with you..." (trying to lead the group into the side passage so that the group can pass the intersection, then moving back through the torbles to take tail-end)
Calla cautiously follows her scarred companion down the side of the tunnel, her boot ready to stomp on any creature that decides her leg will do in lieu of the food LeVash didn't have on him.
Quietly cursing himself for not picking up on LeVash's plan earlyer, Rokan shoulders his shortbow, and follows as queitly as he can.