Despite smarting from the dart, Amandine continues onward to he stairs. At the corner by the crates she slips her rapier blade forward into the first of the cultists.
With a lunging thrust, Amandine's blade pierces through the foe's ribs and likely pierces one of his lungs. Although still standing, this blow is an almost mortal wound.
More of the initiates advance cautiously, but one of the cultists atop the boxes flings a dart at Chana as he hops down the stack. However, the missile only sticks into the wooden flank of the crates providing her cover.
Greenly takes a few silent steps forward and fires off a shot at the man above the dying cultist.
Greenly's arrow lodges in the cultist's stomach, while Olivia's bolt cracks through a wooden crate beneath her target's feet.
One of the elevated cultists misses Chana with another thrown dart, but another hops along the boxes next to her and manages to nick her from above with his dagger. The unengaged cultist on the stairs vaults nimbly over the banister and lands on the pile of boxes below. Despite the acrobatic maneuver, his dart whizzes past Greenly.
The gray-skinned man, including the shimmering extra copies of him, descends the stairs with a sickle in his hand. His dour voice exhorts his cohorts with a litany of macabre, bloody jokes. The cultist before Amandine slides over and takes a defensive stance to compensate for his dire wound, but thanks to the inspiration of the grim Mr. Smiles, he manages to plunge his dagger into Amandine's side.
Chana slashes upwards with her scimitar, trying to gash open the legs of the orange cultist.
She lets out an audible snarl as her weapon gets caught on a crate, then she beckons to her rats with a tilt of the head. She hisses out "Awful lot 'o these buggers, innit?"
Snips continues to pursue the orange cultist, biting away!
The knife wound seems pretty bad to Amandine, at least she's bleeding quite a bit. She takes a slightly panicky stab at her assailant and retreats back behind Greenly, where things seem a little safer.
Chana's scimitar crashes through the crates beneath the cultist. For an interminable moment, she fears the blade is stuck in the wood, but she quickly withdraws it and is ready to continue the fight. Meanwhile, the swarm of Snips continues to open many bleeding wounds upon the man's legs, and some begin to even crawl along his torso and towards his neck.
Whether Amandine's rapier skewers the cultist's heart or merely his other lung, it matters little, for either way he crumples into a bleeding heap at the foot of the stairs, leaving her free to fall back by Greenly.
Stepping forward, Greenly shoulders her bow and chucks one of the masterwork darts at Mr. Smiles. She watches it sail and makes a mental note to collect it later in case it misses.
Photinè frowns and turns her attention toward the other cultist by the stairs, lashing out at him psychically.
The cultist beside the staircase falls under the sway of Photinè's spell, and he stands there in a stupor. Greenly's thrown dart whizzes past the gray-skinned joker and his illusory doubles.
Three of the cultists leap down from their perches on the boxes, drawing their daggers as they move. Two of them swarm around Chana, but only one manages to slice her with his blade.
Olivia rushes in to aid Chana, but the awkward path through the stacks skews her aim, and her blade only bites into the crates hemming in the battle.
Two of the cultists swarming Chana use their numbers to their advantage, and they catch her with their daggers, striking at vulnerable points.
On the other side of the warehouse, the gray-faced Mr. Smiles descends the stairs and raises his sickle to attack Greenly. The blade is painted red with white triangles upon it, giving it the appearance of a fanged smile. The blade bites deeply into the warrior woman.
Surrounded by cultists, Chana collapses, bleeding profusely from the brutal stab wounds.
Perhaps its not the first time she's been stabbed and left for dead, because her body quickly stabilizes and her bleeding abates.
With their friend and ally close to death, Snips swarms over the culprits, biting and tearing as best they can to keep them away from Chana's body.
Snips avenges his dear, tall friend by taking large chunks out of the ones who brought her down. One of the cultists falls, tumbling among the boxes and swarming rats, while the others cry out in pain.
"Watch my back!" Amandine calls to Photine as she hurries up to support Greenly. It's tight, but Amandine threads a rapier thrust between Greenly and the crates toward the gray man.
Photinè does so, releasing another wave of psychic energy at the gray man himself in the hopes of leaving him vulnerable to Greenly and Amandine.
Photinè's spell seizes the gray man's mind, keeping his sickle frozen in midair as the daze stops him in his tracks. Amandine capitalizes on this opportunity and drives her rapier into his stomach, not fooled by the flickering figments around him.
One of the cultists escapes the swarming rats, and he seeks to run over and confront the spell-casting woman. One of his comrades joins him in this endeavor, but his dagger's thrust is blunted by her mage armor.
Another cultist dances around Olivia's potential sword thrusts, but as he makes his own attack, she easily parries the attack.
Green flame envelopes Greenly and pummels her enemy, whispering encouragement and violent thoughts. She draws her sword and slashes the grey man across the chest with the quiet air of a professional.
Greenly trades her bow and darts for her blade - a trade that pays astounding dividends. He furious sword stroke nearly eviscerates the gray man, avoiding the distraction of his illusion. Likewise, the flames of her spirit totem strike the real foe, and their burning green touch upon the man's wounds puts him in the limbo between this world and the Boneyard.
Olivia's armor protects her from the cultist's dagger at her back.
Another of the cultists makes an ill-fated attempt to climb back atop the stairs, but his wounds stymie his efforts. He gives up and begins fleeing towards the open door the party entered through.
With Chana still 'taking a snooze' on the ground, Snips rushes past her towards the next nearest threat. Half a dozen Snips stop to push their noses against Chana's face while the remaining ones start clawing and biting at the green cultist's legs.
Photinè spins around and frowns at the cultist who tries to stab her. "Excuse me," she sneers, and stomps on their foot.
When the gray man goes down and Greenly goes spooky, Amandine decides to leave her to finish the job.
She returns to Photine's side to help her.
Snips continues to chew chunks out of cultists.
The sharp heel of Photinè's boot painfully distracts the cultist, leaving him vulnerable as Amandine runs her rapier into his stomach. Seeing the tide turn so painfully against him, the wounded cultist turns to flee.
A dagger thrust gets past Olivia's parry, but the blade only skitters harmlessly against her armor.
Likewise, Photinè's mage armor deflects an incoming stab aimed at her.
Greenly thrusts her sword into the grey man's gut and pushes past Amandine, sword held at the ready.
Greenly guts the gray man, effectively kicking him through the door to the Boneyard. Olivia's sword only clips the side of a crate, leaving tiny but inconsequential notches in the blade.
One of the cultists steps over Chana's prone form to get into position to flank Olivia with his ally. Despite this, the knightly woman does not compromise her guard and defends herself against the dagger thrust.
The fleeing cultist atop the boxes does not notice Greenly catching up to him, and this is a fatal mistake. She takes an opportunistic swing and all but cuts the legs out from under him. He topples to the warehouse floor in a bloody mess.
Snips clings to the legs and arms of green as the cultist tries to reposition himself, and even while the fellow is stabbing Olivia, Snips bites and claws to attempt to finish the cultist off.
Individual rats go flying as the fellow moves, but many little jaws manage to find their mark.
The cultist on Olivia's left is now streaming blood from countless tiny bites, and his steely resolve is quickly giving way to pained horror.
Amandine continues to press the attack against the cultists around Photine. As the first flees she moves on to the second, lunging at him.
She's really quite astounded by her success at this sort of thing, remarking to Photine "I would never have guessed I had any talent for this sort of thing. Picking up a little swordplay is one of the best trades I ever made I suppose."
"You certainly look dashing with a blade," Photinè compliments the swashbuckler. She psychically presses against the cultist's mind, hoping to render him unable to trade stabs with Amandine.
The pain inflicted by Amandine's sharp blade seems to sharpen the cultist's senses, and he barely withstands the hold of Photinè's spell. Nevertheless, finding himself outnumbered three-to-one, he appears on the verge of fleeing.
A few yards away, unfortunately, the battle turns in favor of the Silent Brotherhood initiates. One of the cultist finds cruel providence, and his dagger's blade slips beneath Olivia's armor. She finds the breath nearly stolen from her chest as the dagger slices through muscle.
Seeing Olivia in trouble, Greenly carefully steps over boxes and comes to provide assistance. With nothing but a smile, she quickly swipes her blade and chops off a man's head, rescuing Olivia. Her ancestor spirits swirl around her, cheering her on and pummeling the corpse.
Greenly's swing leaves the foe's head rolling beside Olivia's feet, leaving the noble knight to focus on dispatching the remaining cultist before her.
Olivia's sword thrust glances past the cultist's abdomen and strikes the boxes behind him. Terrified of the two warrior women before him, and the swarm of rats crawling over his limbs, he bolts away and makes for one of the north-facing exits.
Snips returns victorious to Chana's unconscious body, circling around it as individual Snipses start mysteriously vanishing. One of the Snipses scurries up to Olivia, looks up at her intently for a moment, and then points its nose at Chana.
Amandine continues to press the cultist she's dueling.
With some aid from Photinè, Amandine lays the last fighting cultist low. The other two flee, bursting through exits on opposite ends of the warehouse. You likely only have a few moments before they summon their patrolling fellows from outside.
Chana pulls herself to her feet, looking very wobbly indeed. "Awful nasty lit'le daggas. Thanks Oliv." She draws and drinks a potion of cure light wounds from her pack.
And then when that one seems a total dud, she goes for a second.
Amandine glances at Photine quickly. "We should expect the ones from outside to come at any time now. We need to be ready. Gather the others up so we can make a defense." She moves on immediately to the grey man, figuring him to be the one who was in charge.
Amandine searches him thoroughly. She's mainly interested in keys, notes, or other items that might help them navigate the warehouse, but while she's at it she'll take everything she finds.
The fight was an ugly one, and probably not over yet. She's hurt, and so are others, considerably worse. But Amandine can't help but smile to herself a little. She hadn't been able to use Olivia as a (probably unknowing) bodyguard as she's planned if things became dangerous. Despite that she'd held her own, giving far worse than she received. Maybe she had always underestimated herself. Maybe she was one of those dangerous characters one should think twice about trifling with.
"Let's gather all the bodies and, like, use them to barricade ourselves in the office," Greenly suggests, lifting two of the dead men as she does. "Safe in there, I can shoot them through the window while Livy and Amandy defend the stairs."
"Mademoiselle has a point," Photinè says, waving at Greenly. "They may not be so eager to attack us if they see how many corpses we've made of their fellows."
She does not, however, offer any help lifting the bodies as she ascends the stairs to the office and pokes around.