With a nod, Kasha moves up the stairs toward the door leading to where the crossbowmen are stationed.
Kasha takes advantage of the guard at the end of the hallway looking away and stretching to sneak up the stairs to the second floor. She finds herself at the top of the stairs, outside what appears to be the guard's barracks. Another door lies to the north.
Moving up to the door, Kasha listens at the door and attempts to peer through the keyhole.
Satisfied that the main threat lay below, Kasha makes her way back down, preparing for the assault on the main room that would most likely contain the crossbow wielding guards.
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Before heading down, Kasha considers for a moment before touching the door. Running her fingers along the wood, she chants softly, feeling the grain, reaching in to twist the fibers of it, warping the door. Though he wouldn't realize it, if the noise that would likely occur soon woke the guard, her actions would probably save the fool's life.
Though the man inside visibly stirs as Kasha warps the wood on the door, he doesn't get up.
Downstairs, on the other hand, is a different story--the guard at the far end of the hallway where the meeting rooms are looks up the stairs and starts advancing towards them, heedless of the fact that Maxim is in his path...
Kavell moved past Maxim and stood directly in front of the stairwell. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the guard with a very stern look.
"Do you have family?"
He asked the moving guardsman simply yet with a clear warning tone to his voice.
"Maxim, cool it - don't start anything if you don't have to." she muttered to her brother after following Kavell out into the hall.
With Kavell and her brother in the way, Valeria tried to discreetly use her mind-reading ability. It would take a bit before she started hearing actual thoughts, but it would at least give her a clearer idea of where everyone was. She regretted not using it earlier to keep an eye out for hostile intent, but she never really liked that it invaded the privacy of everyone remotely near her.
The guardsman snorts and unlimbers his sword, unimpressed. "Do you?"
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Valeria is able to read the guard's mind like an open book.
And what was that noise upstairs? Did the tracker escape? Dammit, I need to get upstairs and check--but--huh. That's... that's a lot of people pretty-boy brought with him. And they look mean.
...f+@$, the blood-raven's not going to like this. Maybe if I draw steel here it'll convince them to leave--the hall's too narrow for them to get around.
...why's the horned girl staring at me? And how is she even able to walk with those?
Valeria somehow managed to keep the smirk from her face - it was rare to find someone so easily readable (though that could just as likely have been because she didn't go using the ability all that often) and it seemed he knew something about their true enemies.
"If you can keep your eyes off my chest for a minute," she said, adding in the extra dig to try and throw him off-balance, "perhaps you can answer a question I have. If you'd rather not answer, that's fine, I'm sure my friends here will... respond appropriately. Tell me; do you know anything about a blood-raven in the area?"
She hoped the others would pick up on her emphasis and the implied threat she meant it to be.
Although even if she didn't manage to get him to back down, she hoped that prompting him about the blood-raven would get him thinking about it - one thing she'd learnt is that, when you can read someone's mind, you only have to ask them a question for them to think of the answer, regardless of what they intend to actually say.
"It has been an annoyance to us." Friday flatly adds.
The guard glares at Valeria. "No."
"Very well, a different question then. Who is this 'Runecaster' fellow?"
He stayed quiet, letting Valeria take the lead... though his scowl only grew more when he realized at some point he had oogled Valeria. For now though he merely watched and waited and measured the man for a strike... if he had too of course.
Having rejoined the others, Kasha focuses on the man, preparing to unleash a hex of entangling vines on him should he decide that running was his best option.
The guard's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates when Valeria says 'Runecaster'.
...wait. She's a witch. Is she reading my mind? Can witches do that?
Then he turns and starts running for the door.
He started to move when the man fled but after just one step he stopped. He wasnt here for revenge, despite what it had seemed like. He was here to find the kidnapped guide. If he could repay those whom had defiled the temple then great, but revenge was never a sound motive for any action. Instead he began to head up the stairs.
Sighing as he started to flee, Valeria raised her hand and channelled energy through her new bracelet. A trio of energy bolts raced out from her extended hand and slammed into the fleeing guard.
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The guard doesn't get two steps away before three missiles of force knock him squarely on his ass.
A bunch of vines then erupt from the floor (courtesy of Kasha) and restrain him just to rub a generous helping of salt into the wound.
Leo peeks his head around the corner to the party. "Hey--sounds like they heard something. Better make it fast."
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"The term is arcanist for reference," she said as she approached the guard, "witches draw their power in very different ways. Now I believe I asked you a question you haven't answered yet. Runecaster; who is he?"
The now cowed guard's hand scrambles for his dropped blade, but when Valeria approaches, he stops.
"Someone you shouldn't have crossed. The Frozen Shadows have marked you--you won't make it out of Kalsgard alive." He sputters. "He's a witch of great power--and he'll see to it that your heiress dies last."
Judging from the lack of a spellbook on his person, you get the impression he's not a wizard. Either that, or his spellbook is something else entirely...
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"Well, if he's saving her for last then good, because the only way he'd be touching her is over my dead body. Oh, and given how you remember him looking; he's not a witch either. You really should brush up on your thaumaturgical terminology."
With that, she went to knock him out, driving the butt of her staff into his head.
"We need to get moving," she told the others, accidentally peering into their minds as she looked back to them - she was maintaining her ability on reflex and didn't mean to see their surface thoughts.
Valeria's strike to the man's temple puts him down for the count.
"So you have an idea of what the person giving orders looks like?" Kasha asks Veleria, while turning to follow Kavell.
"Got it out of his mind, some sort of weird troll/gnome hybrid named Runecaster. I'll give you a more detailed description later. And you're right about him threatening Ameiko." It took a moment for her to realise that Kasha hadn't actually said that.
"Damn, sorry; I'm maintaining my mind-reading ability so I can sense where people are through the walls and accidentally caught what you were thinking."
She quickly directed the spell's cone of effect away from her friends before she caught any more stray thoughts, pointing it in the direction more guards were likely to come from.
Kasha blinks for a moment, before shrugging. "It's alright, I know it wasn't deliberate, besides, it's nothing I was hiding." she says with a grin. "We all know, trying to get to her means enemies face you, and they'll regret it if they live that long."
"Well if I catch anything else, I apologise in advance."
Friday nods. "I have nothing to hide either. Though you may pick up something from Zaiobe... I'm not sure how this all works." Friday adds.
"Probably just pick up your reactions to her, would be my bet. Although, if you're both willing, it might make a good subject for a monograph."
Friday nods but then tilts his head.
"Brief research paper on a single, narrow subject," she explained, not needing her powers to see Friday's confusion.
”Ah! She might like that? I’ll ask later.”
You feel a moment of heat from her mind... did you interrupt her in the middle of something?
The guard has a ring of keys on his belt.
As the party prepares to move and as Kavell heads upstairs, there's a knock at the door Leo is in front of.
"Hello? Everything alright in there?"
"I cam warp the door enough to make it very hard to open." Kasha whispers, drawing out a gnarled wooden wand.
”Do it, quickly, then we’re headed upstairs.”
With a nod, Kasha activates the wand, casting the spell as the door twists and bows in its frame, wedging solidly shut.
There's a loud *CREAKING* noise as the wooden door warps in the frame, melding with the doorway and sticking closed.
Leo casually leans against the door as whoever was on the other side starts pounding on it. "Better get a move on. Max, you want to help me keep the floor secure? Just a thought."
Maxim looks between Valeria & the others before they start to head upstairs.
As the team reaches the top of the stairs and throw the door to the rest of the second floor open, the two guards there spin on their heels.
"Who are you?! You're not supposed to be up here!" One of them says before aiming his crossbow at them!
Valeria gave Max a nod before they headed up. She knew Leo would keep him safe if things went wrong (albeit without stepping in until after it's clear Max would be killed and with no intention of helping the rest of the team).
As the guard aimed his crossbow at them, Valeria already had a spell at hand, conjuring a puddle of grease under him and down the hall.
The guard promptly slips and falls on his back as Valeria's conjured grease coats the floor beneath him!
Kasha gestures at the other guard, a small storm of wind and rain erupting around him with furious intensity. Stepping to the side, she clears a path for their warriors to engage.